Political party manifesto or National manifesto?

In every election year, predominantly from 1992 when the nation reverted to constitutional rule, political parties release what they call their Manifesto containing their vision and action plan for the nation. This has become what I refer to as “quadrilineal political illicit affair” whereby the political parties use semantics and captivating words to woo voters. As vulnerable as the typical Ghanaian voter is, party slogans are enough to quench their four –year thirst, hunger, poverty, etc.

Sadly, these manifestos which are accompanied by pomp and pageantry when they are being launched are hid in a hole and covered with a huge and bleak lid until the next election approaches. The ordinary voter hardly sees the color of these manifestos let alone glancing through them. Parties fail to implement these manifestos when they come into power and they are left off the hook as well. This has reduced manifestos to mere rhetoricof political parties to hoodwink unsuspecting and vulnerable voters.

All the above happen and get repeated every four years simply because there are no legal backings to political party manifestos. Parties are not obliged to fulfill promises contained in their manifestos since there are no legal regimes, at least not that I know of, to compel them to do so. Intriguingly, there are always nicely packaged lies to tell the electorates during elections.

For instance, both the NDC and NPP have promised to delineate the Attorney General’s Department from the Ministry of Justice before i.e. NPP in 2000 and NDC in 2008. This has never seen the light of day. Today, the NPP is again giving the same promise in 2016. Again the NDC in 2008 promised not to introduce any new taxes and also to provide every Ghanaian with a job which they can earn their livelihoods, which also never materialized.

What is quite baffling is that the 1992 Republican Constitution under articles 85 and 87 establishes the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to be responsible for the development planning of the country. However, political parties craft their manifestos without recourse to the development plan of the NDPC for the country. Why won’t it be a requirement for political parties to present a platform on how they intend to implement plans of the NDPC? This, in my humble opinion will make manifestos quasi binding on the parties.

Not long ago the president outdoored a forty- year (40) development plan for Ghana which was put together by the NDPC. Members of the commission trekked the length and breadth of the country to solicit ideas from the citizenry before finalizing the document. The billion dollar question is, how is the NDC party manifesto recently launched going to propel that 40-year into action? How the NPP manifesto is yet to be launched fashioned along this grand plan (40-year development plan)? The same question ought to be asked the other parties who have launched or yet to launch their manifestos.

Mr. Jonathan Azasoo, a deputy Director of the National Development Planning Commission recently made a call on the political parties to ensure that their manifestos are in line with the national development plan, a call which is not only in right direction but also long overdue. With the current system, one party takes the nation to the right and the other comes to power and takes us to left. Why can’t we as nation get a national manifesto but always have to depend on manifesto from parties which goes to project the parochial interest of the particular party.

We need to have a National manifesto to collectively tackle key national developmental issues such as education, health, economic management, agriculture to mention but a few. No party manifesto should supersede the national plan to the point that programmes, policies and projects initiated by previous governments are abandoned and discontinued by successive governments. Why should one government introduce a four-year Senior High School programme for another party to come to power soon afterwards to revert if to three years? Did we go or did we come?[sic]

I would not be surprised that that the various political parties are oblivious of the content of the National Development Plan either than that NDC and NPP would not be fighting over who is stealing whose ideas.

How can the NDPC play its constitutionally mandate role effectively when it is structurally defective. While all other Commissions such as the Electoral Commission, National Media Commission, and National Commission for Civic Education, etc are independent, the NDPC is responsible to the President of the day. This constitutional arrangement is what has rendered the NDPC malfunctional in my opinion.

Be as it may with the current constitutional arrangement, there is still a way forward. In order for us to share a common destiny as one people there is an urgent need for a National Manifesto or agenda no matter how belated it may seem. The current system has been try and error where our leaders are toying with our lives. There should a common plan for almost all the aspects of our nation. This plan should be part of our curriculum so that it is imbibed in our students right from the onset.

Again, political party manifestos should be fashioned along the line of the National Manifesto or developmental plan. With this, parties cannot force any policy or programme down our throat simply because it was captured in their manifesto.

We have advanced far in the wrong direction. The solution however does not lie in us pressing hard the accelerator but rather turning backwards, better late than never.

Prince Kwabena Addae Opoku
Contact me:addae09@ymail.com