Breman Asikuma (C/R), May 11, GNA – The Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Neenyi Francis Kofi Tagoe, has called on political parties to make their manifestoes accessible.
Neenyi Tagoe said by so doing party members and the public would be conversant with the document to enable them to support and defend their programmes.
He said this at a meeting with heads of departments, assembly members, chiefs and members of African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Oversight Committees as part of the celebration of the 11th Constitution Week in Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District.
Neenyi Tagoe, who is a Chief of Osubonpanyin in Effutu Municipality , said it was unfortunate that political parties kept their manifestoes secret.
He said since the parties needed the support of their members and the public to implement their programmes they could only do that when they knew the programmes.
Neenyi Tagoe said during electioneering campaigns parties appealed to the emotions rather than the intelligence of the people as they did not know what their manifestoes entailed.
He appealed to governments to uphold the rule of law as it protects the rights of both the majority and the minority.
Neenyi Tagoe urged the media to be sensitive to issues about national security, public order and public morality, saying any publication or news item that abused any of the above must be frown upon by the public.
He urged media practitioners not to use the freedom of the press guaranteed in the Constitution to injure the reputation, rights and freedoms of other persons.
Mr Anthony Kobina Amoakoh, Presiding Member of the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Assembly who spoke on decentralization, said even though the history of decentralization could be traced back to after independence in 1957, it was actually given birth to by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
He said formation of the People’s Defence Committees (PDCs) to manage affairs of the communities enhanced the decentralization.
Mr Amoakoh said PNDC Law 207 enacted in 1988 created 110 districts within the 10 regions of the country which has now increased to 170.
He said the 1988 Local Government Law was to promote popular participation and ownership of government machinery by devolving power and resource to the district level.
He said to make the decentralization policy to go to the grassroots, Towns and Area Councils and Unit Committees were formed under the district assemblies to facilitate mobilization of people and resources for the development of the communities.
Mr Amoakoh appealed to the central government to transfer more power to the local authorities.
GNA
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