People Assembly: PR exercise or democracy in action?

President John Kufuor and his government have celebrated being in charge for one year in an unprecedented qurestion and answer session with ordinary Ghanaians.

It resembled a town hall meeting, but was billed as "The People's Assembly".

Accra International Conference Centre, which was filled to capacity, with those unable to get inside the main auditorium, watching from TV screens on the manicured lawns outside.

President Kufuor, who was flanked by Vice-President Aliu Mahama, and the entire cabinet, fielded questions directly from the people.

A few learned bigwigs in suits posed complicated questions about macro-economic policy, and engaged in lengthy ideological arguments about the privatisation of state enterprises, for example.

However, it was the questions from regular Ghanaians which lit up the event.

Concerns

One woman from the poor and over-populated Accra suburb of Nima, speaking through an interpreter, said they needed a market with stalls so that they wouldn't have to display the things they're selling in the dirt.

She also said Nima needed a secondary school for its young people.

A man wanted to know why cutlasses, a basic tool for peasants, were selling for 25,000 cedis, equivalent to $3.50.

The president took down notes and tried to answer these concerns.

Where the details were beyond him, the minister responsible for the particular sector took the microphone.

Scores of people were sorely disappointed when, despite standing in a long line for over an hour, they failed to take their turn and pose the questions they'd been dying to ask the president all year long, because time had ran out.

A burden shared

Ministers will now be going out in groups to the countryside to hold more of these People's Assemblies.

It may be the case that some of the answers given by the president and his ministers did not entirely satisfy those who asked them, and the ministers who are going to the grassroots may not have all the solutions to the people's problems.

Indeed, some critics saw the whole event as a public relations gimmick, calculated to throw words into the eyes of Ghanaians.

But it is unprecedented in Ghana to have the president coming face to face to address what's on the people's minds, and those who came to the podium made it clear they appreciated the opportunity, even if they included a couple of coutright praise-singers.

But as one analyst put it, if the people believe that you care, their burden of poverty becomes lighter, even if they're still carrying it.

No doubt, the authorities would be delighted if the People's Assembly achieved that psychological and political effect.

Question Marks Over People’s Assembly -- Joy Online

Monday’s public forum, which crowned activities marking the ninth anniversary of the Fourth Republic and the first anniversary of the Kufuor administration, has highlighted the political divide in the country. A section of the public has commended President Kufuor for his unprecedented decision to appear in a public arena with his entire cabinet and answer questions from ordinary citizens.

The organizers of the ‘People’s Assembly’ are patting themselves on the back for a good job done. But critics see the programme as a stage-managed event carefully organized to hoodwink Ghanaians into believing that the President is in tune with the people.

Others, more cynical, are asking whether the event was to prove to Ghanaians that the President has polished his public-speaking abilities? Another group of critics is demanding to know why members of the main opposition National Democratic Congress were absent from the event.

For example, the Parliamentary Minority Leader, Alban Bagbin, claims that the real significance of the event has been muddled. Was it to mark the ninth anniversary of the fourth republic or the first anniversary of the Kufuor administration?

But, for people like the TUC Secretary General, Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, the unprecedented decision by a head of state to answer questions from the citizens is nothing short of an act of courage.

The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, Dr Baffuor Agyeman-Duah says the people’s assembly is a welcome departure from the normal military parades used to commemorate national anniversaries. He disagrees with the assertion that the event was partisan, glorifying the President’s party. “The whole event was national. There were no party banners and flags except a few people who decided to put on party colours. That is a private issue and the President has no control over what people should wear.”

Nana Essilfie Conduah, a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism says the event achieved only limited success because a lot of people did not get the opportunity to ask questions or make suggestions. Nevertheless, the President and his team will continue with the back patting for sometime to come, perhaps until Ghanaians begin to demand more than just talk.