Accra, Ghana, November 6, 2019//-A Ghanaian economist and law reformist, Dr King Bachiesichang says that anytime a country is gearing towards a rude awakening the citizens collectively participate in governance.
“We have seen it in Germany. We have seen it in the UK and USA respectively. The focus of government is a mirror of the people”, he added.
Although some people especially members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have laughed at the decision of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to call for views from the public, Dr Bachiesichang said the party is on a rescue mission to safe citizens from the current economic hardships being meted out to them by the Akufo-Addo government.
The NDC has always led trails when it comes to consultative and participatory governance. In 1984 the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) created a National Commission on Democracy to study ways to establish participatory democracy in Ghana, he cited.
The commission issued a “Blue Book” in July 1987 ushering in a district level elections which took place in 1988 and 1989. The PNDC formed a 258 member consultative assembly with geographical representation across the districts which in all rescue this nation into a democratic government just as input are currently being gathered for a peoples manifesto.
It was this people’s consultative assembly that was charged to draft up a constitution which finally established the fourth republic and the 1992 constitution.
Dr Bachiesichang noted: “Defining democracy which is the government of the people. Democracy maybe a word familiar to most, but it is a concept still misunderstood and misused in a time when “rocket science governments” like the NPP seems to most Ghanaians”.
No doubt the illusive nature of it has invariably made totalitarian regimes and military dictatorship alike have attempted to claim popular support by pinning democratic labels upon themselves”.
Therefore the singular move by the NDC as exemplified by its past records of participatory governance in openly inviting input for a governing manifesto is not only a brilliant move but highly strategic and timely. It once again reaffirms the party’s position of good governance brought to the door step of the people. Governance is about the people, not political parties, Dr Bachiesichang said,
He said the harrowing past of the 1884 Berlin Conference at the request of Portugal and called by Bismark the Chancellor which led to the scramble for the partition of Africa without due consultation of any African representative must remind us all as a people of how critics of the NPP approach to governance is likened to a “rocket science”.
African Eye Report
