Opinions of Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Columnist: Charles A. Ben-Cofie
The case of not making it
Throughout history many nations have been able to advance their cause toward an all round development because of one major clue to national development. This clue which remains a mystery to many African nations is the essence of the word ‘CHANGE’. The fear of change to how we do things and embrace new ideas has been a major setback causing our down fall to date. Majority of the Ghanaian populace will like to remain where they are or what they are used to if that gives them the means to live for the day. We therefore resist any changes that can bring in the challenges of life that can eventually uplift us from point B to point A.
Watching advertisement on National Televisions and other media houses of charity organisations around the globe, I realized that they portrays Africa as poverty ridden continent that have no hope to make it themselves without the help or assistance of the Western world. For well over two hundred years, this has been our lot and continues to be our worst fear because no African nation has made any meaningful inroads to completely turn around their circumstances to a profitable position over the years.
Change is an evidence of growth and the essence of learning. We therefore as individuals cannot become who we are, if we continue to resist change and insist on doing the exact same things we were doing in the past that has not yielded any benefits. Excuse me to say that only ‘fools and dead men’ do not change. ‘Fools’ won’t and the ‘dead’ can’t. Change is not an enemy. Once you start seeing yourself as a lifelong learner looking for ways to grow and improve, change becomes a welcomed friend.
Many a time, changes may become enjoyable but sometimes they are painful. When times get tough during a changing period, people will normally like to go back to what is familiar and comfortable to them. The best example to give with regards to the above scenario is to liken this Phenomenon to the nineteen years administration of the Honourable former President John Jerry Rawlings. This is a young soldier who dreamt of a change to what was really happening during his time. He took over power from the then existence administration and brought the whole nation behind him. Irrespective of the painful method used to enforce his changes, many praises and accolades were sung to him from all parts of the nation.
Many of us at the time felt that Ghana was at the threshold and needed long overdue changes to haul the country to tremendous development and free us from poverty. The much touted ideology of Productivity, Accountability and Social Justices of this man’s reign came up to nothing as nothing was and has been changed during his time and even when he handed over power to the Kuffour’s administration. It can therefore be suggested that Mr Rawling’s could have brought in the necessary changes that this country needed because he had absolute power and authority over the nation.
Most people suffered losses and many cherished lives were lost. Even the land suffered from the painful torments the country was subjected to during the period of his revolution. Sadly, none of the governments and the heads of state of this our dear nation with the exception of President Kwame Nkurumah has been able to yield the needed changes to move the country forward.
Ghana needs a change. I don’t mean a military take over as all such actions from our armed forces has brought us back in terms of national development leaving behind useless painful results instead of the needed change. There are many areas in this country that needs change .This article will therefore highlight on just two of them.
The Local Government Administration and the Land Acquisition Policy
Local Government:
The two administrative machineries required to move a nation forward when applied effectively, correctively and efficiently are the Central government and the Local government.
Local government in Ghana has traditionally been subject to the central government because responsibilities between the two are not well-defined and woefully lack the ingredients that allow the two to harmoniously work together. In late 1982, the government announced that town and village councils, which had been dissolved after the 1981 coup, would be run by people's and workers' defense committees.
They were replaced by Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in 1984. The Local Government Law of 1988 and the Local Government Act of 1993 further empowered local governments, and set the stage for efforts to assist them with development planning, working with civil society to create less dependence on central government for resources.
Elections were held for 103 district assemblies, 4 municipal assemblies, and 3 metropolitan assemblies in March 1994. The World Bank in April 2000 approved a US $11-million credit for infrastructural development in Ghana's smaller cities. The Urban 5 Project was therefore intended to support Ghana's decentralization program through capacity building, improvement of urban infrastructure, and delivery of services at the levels of the district assemblies. The project was part of an 11-year program. Local assembly elections were also held in August 2002; 14,079 candidates competed in that elections, which were peaceful but was marked by low voters turn out.
The two paragraphs above sounds good for national development and express well thought ideas but on the ground it is simply not working and far worse than when Mr Rawlings booted the then local administration and brought in the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution and other military cum civilian organizations to prop up his revolution. Power to the people which was the pivot of this bloody revolution was by and is still largely centred on the central government. To this end, local administration has completely lost it value.
Without a well defined, effective, and all people inclusive local administration, the central government cannot and will not be able to achieve anything meaningful no matter how long it stays in power or who is in charge of the nation. This is true to the sense that it therefore becomes the prerogative right of the central government to direct the affairs of the nation minus the people who must have a say on what really affect them. The only time that the central government rub shoulders with it populace (the nation) is when it seeks their mandate for another term in office; during an election period.
Local government therefore is the only machinery in governance that involves and brings all people together irrespective of tribe, culture, education, colour and region as a nation. Successful and dynamic local governance therefore becomes the pivot under which a central government can effectively administer and implement their policies and embrace the masses of the nation.
Local Authorities have no powers of their own as their powers are delegated mainly from Parliament. Since the parliamentary body represent all the constituencies in the administrative divide of the country, they set out the laws under which local governance should be run.
These call for a very serious analytical review of our so called District, Municipal and Metropolitan assemblies which has been a complete failure from since they were first establish. Local administration should have created the same impact as central governance by the people of the nation in which all are involved. They should be totally independent from the central government with an agency set up to link these two bodies to oversee funding and others. They are expected to have their own buildings and town halls in every neighbourhood, villages, towns, urban areas, regional capitals and the cities.
Effective and dynamic Local Authorities was anticipated to promote the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their communities. They also should be responsible for providing services directly to the public or arrange for others to do so as most of these services affect the daily lives of the local people in a major way.
Several of the most important mechanisms for improving the well being of our communities include settlement planning, transport, education, leisure and housing. Others are waste collection and disposal, street cleaning and naming, cemeteries, public convenience, food safety, environmental protection, improvement and enforcement of their by-laws. These are all instruments of local government.
How can the Accra metropolitan assembly control the whole capital? The answer is the filths that have engulfed the capital city and the haphazard way in which buildings are being put up in the cities.
Recent fire outbreaks and the collapsing of buildings are the end result of the failure of our local government system. When you visit some places in the capital, you are tempted to ask yourself if this is a twenty-first century capital city. Our cities are filled with filths and gutters chocked with rubbish and human excreta breeding mosquitoes, one wonders what have become of our local administration.
With all the above inconsistencies, we still pay and allocate funds to somebody as the minister for local government and rural development. We still have the assembly men who cannot be found when we need them and our elective members of parliament see nothing wrong with it because they are also part of the common funds that have been set up for the running of these local administrations. The end result here is that when we don’t have places of public conveniences, good schools, and others we call on the central government or the President of the nation to come to our aid.
It is about time we changed as individuals, institution and a people. A change that can modernise and set our local administrations independently and as corporate bodies with elected members and not a presidential appointment of whom he see capable of heading a local administration.
In order to fix these problems and effect the much needed change, governing bodies must aim at handling effectively and control areas such as:
These may mean an unthinkable fleet, yet with a well laid down laws from our parliamentarians and effective implementations of the local administration as set above, and not totally depending on the central government our nation will begin to do away with the NDC and NPP sentiment that have divided not only the country but her people as well. It will also educate the masses and get them involved in local governance as their individual local administration consult them in their planning and decision making as all these eventually affect them locally.
Stay tuned for the next on Land administration.
