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The National Chairman for the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, Dr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo has revealed that the recent happenings in the appointment and approval of the MMDCEs, vindicate the party’s position on making the local governance a system partisan.
According to the NDC stalwart, the nation would further be polarized should the local governance system be made partisan.
Speaking at the Eastern regional House Of Chiefs as part of the NDC’s Thank you tour, Chairman Ofosu Ampofo who has once served as a local government minister for the nation, revealed the cracks in the local government system.
“The last point that i will say before i sit down concerns Nananom and also our local governance system. You will recall that the president Nana Akufo-Addo proposed amendment to the local government act that our local government system should be partisan. And those of us here opposed vehemently that we would want to preserve the non-partisan nature of our district assemblies. And so there was a very intense debate when a referendum was proposed and because of the position that we canvas and convince Ghanaians, finally, the president had to withdraw and then that referendum never took place” – Chairman Ofosu Ampofo.
“Recent development in the appointment and approval of MMDCEs vindicate our position that if we make local governance a system partisan, we will further polarize this country and we will not be able to even put our citizens together to undertake development projects” – Chairman Ofosu Ampofo added.
He explained further that in one district Assembly, some government appointees were constituted to endorse an MCE where some elected Assembly members were denied voting.
“Only last Sunday, in one district Assembly where about 38 people were supposed to endorse an MCE, on the sunday, some government appointees were put together and one or two people were added. And military and security agencies provided them cover to go and approve someone who has been appointed as a DCE. The elected Assembly members were prevented from exercising their constitutional rights and this is a sad commentary for our local governance which for me is the heartbeat of Nananom when it comes to the governance architecture of this country” – He maintained.
He added that the same has been happening in several District Assemblies where the elected Assembly members were denied voting.
Chairman Samuel Ofosu Ampofo then appealed to the august house to take into consideration his humble submissions in their deliberations.
