MPs "Don't Understand Nepad"

A Member of Parliament for Gomoa-West, Ms. Ama Benyiwa-Doe shocked participants at a roundtable discussion last week on "Strengthening Regional Capacity for Conflict Resolution in West Africa" in Accra, when she said, "we Members of Parliament do not understand NEPAD".

This attracted much comment at the meeting.

According to Ms. Benyiwa-Doe it looks as if every generation of African leaders wants to append their signatures to a new document to prove to their countries that they have something good to offer.

She said "to the best of my knowledge the NEPAD document is nothing new except that old ideas have been compiled together with the approval of international community without prior approval from the very people this document's policy are to be governed with".

She said NEPAD is not the solution to the African problem because it does not even cover gender issues.

Ms. Benyiwa-Doe's contention that MP's are not conversant with NEPAD led Mr. Pierre Saddler, a participant, to suggest that, "the whole issue of NEPAD should be looked into critically".

However, Mr. J.E. Aggrey-Orleans, former Ghana High Commissioner to UK, said in his capacity as governance consultant currently engaged in Parliament, they have organised three meetings and workshops for parliamentarians. He said due to heavy schedules and numerous pressing issues, discussion of NEPAD is not given much attention.

Ms. Benyiwa-Doe shot back, "how many MPs were involved in the said meetings?"

Surprisingly, none of the Members of Parliament present denied or supported Benyiwa-Doe's position.

The roundtable conference which was organised by African Security Dialogue and Research, Liu Centre and University of Ghana, and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), ended on Friday.