Nationwide rejection of Mahama’s MMDCEs; Shoddy work or sabotage?

The continuous rejection of President John Dramani Mahama’s nominees for the positions of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives across the country has arguably ballooned to an unprecedented epoch in the political annals of the country that critical minds need to start knocking on the doors of questions for gripping answers.

Not a day passes by without the media reporting news of supporters of the ruling government, either vehemently protesting or vandalism properties in their respective districts in reaction to their disagreement with the President to nominate a particular person to represent him in prosecuting the agenda of the government in a particular district.

These spiraling protests which sometimes hit the zenith point of violence, have to a very large extent resulted in members of a majority of the Assemblies humiliating the President by stiffly rejecting the nominees at the polls even in the presence of huge government delegations.

Whereas this unfortunate development has not only been a source of worry and disappointment to officialdom who have worked almost all the needed political theories to convince the various Assemblies to approve the President’s nominees, it is equally important to access what could have necessitated or triggered the situation.

Some party big wigs and several supporters of the ruling government have blamed the situation on some National Democratic Congress kingpins nursing ambition to contest President Mahama in the next congress of the party.

Those with this notion argue that, the President’s internal “enemies” are inducing members of the various Assemblies with money to vote against his nominees in order to make him unpopular, especially among the rank and file of the party.

Aside this skewed version of the situation, other party heavyweights, and even a section of NDC party supporters have blamed the rejection of the nominees on the President’s inability to listen to the views of the grass root supporters of the party.

According to the proponent of this view, the president has made it an article of faith to brush aside their suggestions relating to who should be nominated as District Chief Executive, hence the need to impress on their Assembly members to teach the President a bitter lesson by rejecting his nominees.

Another school of thought in the NDC also has it that, the solid resolve of some party gurus to impose their cronies on the Assemblies has infuriated the Assembly members to show those party gurus, and by extension the President who condoned their “selfish wish” where power lies.

A situation that has infuriated the Central Regional Minister, Mr. Samuel Sarpong to issue a highly daring and provocative ‘fatwa’ that if the Assemblies continue with the rejections, the President will bend the rules and impose the MMDCEs on the Assemblies.

Meanwhile, another interesting view, which was expressed by an Assembly member for the Residential Electoral Area in the Birim Central Municipal Assembly, Kwame Baa Mensa, which was captured on page 17 of the Daily Guide of Monday, July 24, 2013 suggested that the situation could be traced to how the decentralization and local government system have been thrown into the muddy realms of partisan politics.

The Assembly member noted that the partisan nature of the local government system which was supposed to be strictly non-partisan has led to a situation where politicians are selfishly thwarting the smooth running of the assemblies, which he said has affected the approval of the new nominees for the various MMDCEs.

“Now the assemblies are being run as appendages to political parties, but in actual fact the assemblies should be run devoid of politics hence the current situation,” Mr. Mensa added.

He expressed frustration with the current situation where more nominated MMDCEs are being rejected by various assemblies, which according to him, will hugely affect the development of the Assemblies, adding that assembly members feel unimportant because MMDCEs have been running a ‘one man show and they think is a time to pay them back for relegating them to the background.

As these various varying perspectives on the situation continues to trickle in as the Assemblies continue to reject the President’s nominees, the question still remained unanswered as to whether the situation is as a result of ‘not much work’ being done on the part of the Executive, or inherent institutional conflict or better still, a grand ploy by some members of the President’s own party to sabotage him in a bid to enrich their political fortunes?

So far, Districts like Wulensi, Sekondi-Takoradi, South Tongu, Asante Akim North, Agotime Ziofe, Assin North/South and Ekumfi, Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam and several others have either tasted some form of protest or rejections, a phenomenon indicating that all is not well in the ruling party and something needs to be done to contain the situation.

The President may remain perplex for the nationwide rejection, party supporters may remain dissatisfied with the situation, but the common denominator, which is a very intriguing question still remains; ‘na who cause am’?

There is no doubt that the President has enormous powers under Section 243 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, and Section 20 (1) of the Local Government Act 1993, Act 462 to appoint persons to MMDCE positions, but at the end of the day, the nominees must be somebody the people like.

We can all continue to be scratching our heads, biting our nails and rubbing our hands at our feet, but until something drastic is done, the nationwide rejections will continue, and the ultimate loser will be Ghana.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed media reports indicate that President Mahama has terminated the appointment of six Municipal and District Chief Executives in the Ashanti region. The affected persons included Charles Oti Prempeh, Amansie West; Robert Fokuo, Amansie Central and Noah Asante Manu, Bekwai Municipal Assembly.

The rest are Theresa Adomako, Atwima Mponua; Martha Bucknor, Ejura Sekyeredumasi, and Tony Nyame, Atwima Kwanwoma.