Day: June 11, 2024

Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman, Running Mate to the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, says the country needs serious reorganisation to address critical developmental issues.

‘The country will have to be reset so that we stop this back and forth. If one group comes to clean and another comes to destroy, how can we make progress as a country?’

Prof Opoku Agyeman was speaking at the commemoration of the 32nd Anniversary of the NDC and Flag Raising ceremony at the Party Headquarters in Accra.

The event was attended by the Party’s National Executive Committee Members, Members of the Council of Elders, the Zongo Caucus, Youth and party supporters.

Prof Opoku Agyeman also appealed to members of the Party to emulate the examples of past leaders, who sacrificed for the Party over the years.

She said the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), which brought the NDC did so not because they wanted anything for themselves, but to ensure the improvement in the lives of the peo
ple.

‘Those of us here are beneficiaries of those who started it long time ago…’

Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, National Chairman of the NDC, said he history of the country could not be written without appreciating the contribution of the NDC to national development.

He stated that although the Party had not performed to its peak, it had not failed in the past 32 years.

‘We are always the Party that comes to clean the mess, and when we leave, some other people will come and destroy everything that we have built and even dig up the foundation to make sure that this country will not survive,’ he said.

Mr Nketia said the Party was ready to come back and be the partners of the masses to rebuild ‘everything that had been destroyed’.

He said the country was getting into a crucial election and urged the electorate to vote massively for the NDC and bring it back to power.

The NDC Chairman also urged all stakeholders to act peacefully before, during and after the polls.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) says it has uncovered a growing despondency and low morale amongst civil and local government staff working in the Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) due to political interference.

‘This unfortunate turn of events has been occasioned by the unrestrained political interference in the day-to-day functional responsibilities of the staff in the MMDAs,’ ChaLoG stated in a press statement signed by its executives and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

It noted that this highly unacceptable phenomenon had led and continued to lead to growing apathy amongst the local government staff, resulting in low revenue generation and poor service delivery to citizens by the MMDAs.

It stated that the ChaLoG’s nationwide investigations had revealed disturbing observations of the indiscriminate and unjustifiable transfer of staff at the behest of chief executives, presiding members, and party constituency executives.

According to the ChaLog, its investigations
also revealed that such persons pose an open threat to local government staff with the use of transfers by MMDCEs.

‘Constant political interference and issuance of threats to internal auditors who try to stamp their authority for the right things to be done by MMDCEs; excessive political interest and interference in the preparation and award of contracts; and planting party foot soldiers in units and departments to monitor and sometimes usurp the powers and traditional responsibilities of local government staff,’ it stated.

Other observations, the chamber noted, were the deliberate sidelining of local government staff in taking critical decisions within the MMDAs; the forceful takeover and locking up of offices; and the forceful seizure of official vehicles being used by senior local government staff.

It stated that others included the unjustifiable replacement of trained and experienced revenue collectors with inexperienced party foot soldiers who have taken over revenue collection and political interfere
nce in the decision-making processes in the administrative procedures encompassing promotions, postings, transfers, recruitments, conversion, and upgrading of staff.

The ChaLoG indicated that the unrestrained political interference has greatly affected and continued to affect revenue generation and service delivery within the MMDAs as most local government staff, who had been engaged based on their technical expertise and know-how, are virtually adopting a wait-and-see attitude by sitting back to allow the political actors, who for all intents and purposes have little or no technical experience, to have their way, for fear of victimisation and unjustifiable politically motivated transfers.

‘It stated that this unfortunate phenomenon has largely demotivated and demoralised local government staff, so much so that they deliberately report to work late just to allow the political apparatchiks to do whatever they want to do in their absence.’

The ChaLoG, therefore, called on the Minister of Local Government and
Rural Development to urgently take practical steps to nip the needlessly overbearing conduct that has reared its ugly head in the MMDAs in the bud.

The urgent call, they noted, has become extremely necessary to allow well trained and qualified local government staff the freedom to independently perform their legitimate duties and functions, to enhance service delivery and, more importantly, generate revenue for developmental projects in the MMDAs.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, says the government under his presidency, will not accept homosexuality no matter the consequences.

He said it was important Ghana held and protected its culture, traditions and values as sacred devoid of any foreign influences.

Dr Bawumia, who is the flag-bearer of the NPP in the 2024 general elections, was addressing members of the clergy and church leaders in Kumasi, as part of his three-day campaign tour of the Ashanti region.

He stated clearly that, the traditions of the country’s forefathers needed to be protected and hold as sacred and that the LGBTQ+ was not part of it.

‘It is no, no, no for LGBTQ,’ he told the clergymen.

Dr Bawumia pledged what he called ‘golden age’ for faith-based organizations to enable them to strengthen their contributions to the socio-economic development of the country.

He said faith-based organizations would be empowered to manage their schools and shape the character and behaviour of the Ghanaian children.

The Vice President pr
omised to take the country into the fourth industrial revolution, which was the digital age.

He said the world of development was very competitive and Ghana must be prepared to be there as well, adding that, there was the need to put in place pillars such as technological education, digitalization and other innovations to move the country there.

Dr Bawumia said the introduction of the free senior high school policy and the distribution of tablets to students as part of the smart schools project, were all part of strategies to put the country on the global technological map.

He said the use of solar energy to power technologically driven agriculture would be one of his priorities, adding that, he would move the country into a credit economy.

Dr Bawumia said the private sector would be empowered to contribute significantly to the industrial revolution of the country and said flexible tax regimes would be introduced to help ease business operations in the country.

He said he would actively involve chiefs an
d traditional rulers in the fight against illegal miner (galamsey) in the country and promised to fight corruption at all fronts if elected as president in the December general elections.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) says a ‘significant’ number of undecided voters are in a ‘difficult situation’ deciding on participating in the upcoming General Election.

The Institute said internal works conducted within the regions indicate that ‘a lot’ of voters ‘are not sure’ whether to participate in the December 7 polls as they had lost trust in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) due to past experiences.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Professor Kwesi Jonah, Senior Research Fellow, IDEG, said the development was dangerous to Ghana’s democracy.

‘Voters say that they have seen the NPP and NDC and they are going through same difficulties all the time. So, the real problem that we face at this moment is that a lot of people who are undecided whether they want to participate in the elections at all.

‘This is a danger to our democracy,’ he said.

Prof. Jonah encouraged politicians to do more to convince voters that they would perform better when
offered the mandate in the upcoming elections.

‘Between now and voting time, this is the time for politicians to convince those people who are sitting on the fence right now that things are going to change, in terms of the ways which politicians have performed in the past.

‘Otherwise, a lot of people have decided that they won’t vote at all,’ he said.

It is barely six months to the 2024 General Election and political parties and aspirants are criss-crossing the country to make a case to various segments of voters, stakeholders, and opinion leaders in a bid to win their support.

The parties appear to have adopted stakeholder engagements and house-to-house campaigns as starting points to the year-long campaign that is expected to intensify in the coming months.

The IDEG observed that the parties had adopted a shift in strategy at the initial stages of the campaign by targeting identifiable groups and people without spending too much financial resources.

Prof. Jonah described the approach adopted by the pa
rties as a ‘very good beginning’ and expressed hope that the parties would adopt measures to reduce the cost of their campaigns.

He said big rallies increased the cost of politics and proposed the allocation of a principal place where politicians could engage with voters directly instead of staging rallies in every district, constituency, and region.

‘If we want to cut down the cost of politics, we should begin a process. Instead of big rallies, having a central place where the leaders can go, talk to people, supporters, we can make more progress in cutting down the cost of politics,’ he said.

Source: Ghana News Agency