Participants of the 8th in the series of Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programmes (ARAP) by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) have called on governments to adequately resource democratic institutions to effectively discharge their independent constitutional duties.
The NCCE’s national dialogue held on Tuesday in Accra brought together participants from the security services, public institutions, the chieftaincy institution, civil society and the general public to brainstorm on how democratic institutions could be strengthened to function effectively, give more meaning to democracy and also create the platform for active participation by the citizens.
Main speakers at the forum were Prof. Henry Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD); Dr. Esther Ofei-Aboagye, Chairperson of STAR-Ghana Foundation, and Henry Kwabena Kokofu, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Prof. Prempeh said real democracy revolves round the governed who should rather be empowered to contribute meaningfully to strengthen it. He said power must truly be ceded to the people since in a democratic system power is derived from the people.
According to him, the citizens must be made to vote for their own metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs), stressing that it is time all political parties agreed on election of MMDCEs by the people to give true meaning to democracy.
He said when the MMDCEs are elected, they should not be paid from the Consolidated Fund by the central government but rather empower the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to generate enough revenues and pay the MMDCEs from their own resources.
He said districts must take direct control of natural resources found in their areas and also create mini ministries particularly in charge of finances to help implement their own development programmes based on the direct needs of the local people.
On her part, Dr. Ofei-Aboagye reiterated that effective decentralization would mean a lot to the citizens and give more power to them, adding that effective resourcing of democratic institution is key to effective functioning of democracy by ensuring that acts of corruption are monitored and reduced.
The Deputy Chairman of NCCE in charge of operations, Samuel Asare Akuamoah, was happy with the frank nature of participants’ contributions at the forum since, according to him, accountability drives democracy.
He said democracy is citizen-centred and, therefore, the citizenry must always be involved in any decision-making about their welfare and progress.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr