NGOs to pull out of Ghana?

All foreign Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) in Ghana have decided to leave the country and allow the neglected rural folks to suffer if the NDC government goes ahead and passes a bill it has prepared on Non-Governmental Organisations, writes Andrews Biney in the Ghanaian Chronicle.

The bill which is seen by many as a bid by the government to have political control over NGOs and christened "the Non-Governmental Organisation Act 1993" has been described as more dangerous than the infamous Serious Fraud Office Bill. At a round-table discussion organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) last week, participants drawn mainly from non-governmental organisations unequivocally condemned the bill and called for its total and unconditional withdraw by the government.

Justice Robert Hayfron-Benjamin, Chairman of the Ghana Law Reform Commission who led the discussion described the bill as an attempt to impose political and religious uniformity on the people of Ghana through subtle means. Justice Hayfron-Benjamin contended that it is totally absurd to ask the people of communities who have voluntarily organised themselves to undertake projects to improve their living standards, to go through a long bureaucracy to register as NGOs.

He said the requirements as stipulated in the bill which is covered with a secret agenda will have a boomerang effect of worsening the plight of rural folks who, but for the assistance of the NGOs would have remained highly neglected by the government. He further said "the worst dictator in the world would always have imposed political and religious uniformity on his people by first breaking up freedoms of the civil society." How can an NGO remain an advisory council whose members are from government institutions and ministries, he queried.

What saddened the hearts of all Ghanaians at the round table discussion is the decision of most foreign NGOs notably ActionAid, Friedrich Norman Foundation, British NGOs, Catholic Relief Agency and many more to leave the country for other countries.

If this should happen, the rural folk whose standards of living is already beyond recovery would surely sink the abyss of recovery.

The widely unacceptable bill requires all NGOs to be registered and classified by an Advisory Council made up of representatives from 10 ministries and the government. Other representatives will come from the Christian Council, Federation of Muslim Councils, Ahmadiyya Movement, National House of Chiefs, the Catholic Secretariat and the Association of NGOs. 15 members of the 23-member council will be government officials or appointees.