Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese launch local governance project

By
Godfred A. Polkuu, GNA

Bolgatanga, Sept. 23,
GNA – The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese has launched a local governance
project in the Upper East Region to create awareness on the need for the
citizenry to participate in governance activities at the local level.

The programme is
expected to cover citizens in some selected districts in the Upper East and
Northern regions on the need to participate in governance activities at the
local level.

The project is
intended to build the capacities of the Justice and Peace Commissioners on what
local governance was about as far as the Ghanaian law was concerned and how
citizens could participate at the local level so that activities of government
would be meaningful to them.

The project would run
in nine districts namely; the Garu, Zebilla, Talensi, Bongo Districts, Bawku
Municipal, Kassena-Nankana East, Kassena-Nankana West, Builsa North Districts
of the Upper East Region, and West Mamprusi District in the Northern Region,
and was expected to end in November this year.

Launching the project,
Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, Bishop of the Diocese, said even though the
National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) performs its role of educating
citizens on their political and civic duties, there was still the lack of
knowledge among many about how government functions.

He said the high level
of illiteracy contributed to why citizens were not able to participate in
discourse and dissatisfaction stemmed from the way politics was done in the
country.

Bishop Agyenta said
the level of dissatisfaction in local governance was because “in Ghana, no
matter how you try, you can never be neutral and whether you like it or not
people are going to identify you with one party or the other.”

He said that
decentralization was only on paper adding that for people to effectively
participate in governance, the facilities should be brought to the local level
to ensure that people stayed where they were and still participate in issues of
governance.

Bishop Aygenta called
on stakeholders, especially at the national level to make the needed efforts to
come down to the community level to ensure that citizens participated and
contributed effectively in governance.

Addressing
stakeholders including various District and Municipal Chief Executives on the
theme: “Local Governance in Ghana: Medium of Development,” Reverend Father
Clement Kwasi Adjei, the Director of Governance, Justice and Peace Directorate at
the National Catholic Secretariat, said governance was an integral part of
every society and the rate of development in any society depended on its system
of governance.

Rev Adjei said “Ghana
by the 1992 constitution operates a centralized system of governance with
delegation of powers to the local authorities to exercise such powers as are
devolved or delegated by central government and in accordance with law.”

He reminded
stakeholders that the local governance system was structured on the District
Assembly concept where persons were elected to serve adding that there was
growing apathy in the participation by communities members in the local
governance structure.

This apathy, he said,
affected the effectiveness of the local governance structure with its
consequences including low development, poverty, rancour and partisanship.

Rev Adjei said the
renewed call to action by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo “to be
citizens and not spectators, citizens not subjects” required that stakeholders;
chiefs, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, religious
leaders and other identifiable groups took the necessary initiatives to
encourage members in communities to actively participate in local governance
affairs.

He said the Catholic
Church in Ghana has collaborated with government and NGOs to build responsible
communities through advocacy, awareness creation among other projects, adding
that “the essence is to build strong and viable congregants to champion the
spiritual and physical development needs of their communities for growth,
prosperity, peace and just society.”

GNA

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