Acting Head of Policy and programmes, STAR Ghana Foundation, Teiko Sabah, has called on Ghanaians to “stand up and take their stance as Ghana gears up for general elections this year”. She said by doing so, politicians will take them seriously. She noted that consensus building is the way forward and urged Ghanaians to put the country first and make it work. Mrs. Sabah was moderating the final edition of `WE THE PEOPLE,` a television platform that discussed “the aborted Referendum to amend Article 55 (3) and lessons for Ghana’s local governance”.
`We the People” on GTV and GTV-News is a platform instituted by the Ghana Journalists Association, GJA with support from STAR-Ghana Foundation, as part of an 18-month project dubbed, “Enhanced Media-CSO Partnerships for Inclusive Local Governance”. Under the project, the GJA built the capacity of Journalists who worked meticulously with CSOs to influence critical local governance policies and other developmental issues that directly affect women, youth, and persons with disability, children, and socially excluded persons in the communities. Overall, the interventions contributed to enrich citizens’ access to quality information through structured media platforms and CSOs outlets.
Speaking as a panel member on the show, the UNDP Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, said that the country’s governance system must be redesigned and structured to create space for minority parties to operate. He said Ghana is gradually drifting to becoming a two-party state, which is inimical to the country’s democratic growth, adding “the subject of political party’s funding needs to be revisited’’.
Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance, IDEG Dr. Kwesi Jonah, on his part bemoaned the lack of consensus leading up to the intended referendum to amend article 55(3). He said: “There was the lack of coordination among institutions that championed the campaigns… for the suspended referendum to amend article 55 (3) to have successfully gone through, it should have been pursued as a national project.”
The President of the GJA, Roland Affail Monney, expressed concern about the “over politicisation of issues”, in Ghana. Mr. Monney said the over politicization is issues, dominated by entrenched positions of the two major parties, NDC and NPP opposing all initiatives of the other party, is inimical to development. Mr. Monney said unless the two close gaps and ‘’create a common ground with a nationalist message, achieving national consensus would be a mirage.’’
Private Legal Practitioner, Samson Anyenini, affirmed that amendment to article 55(3) was not a panacea to breaking the winner takes all system, stating there are no scientific basis for making such conclusions. He called for the empowerment of marginalised groups to participate in local governance.
In attendance were representatives of Civil Society Organisations including Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), members of the Ghana Journalist Association, representatives of STAR Ghana Foundation, Students among others.
