With
the suspension of the District Assembly Elections, a local government
expert has argued that Ghana’s decentralisation policy was in danger,
saying that the crisis was politically motivated and a betrayal of the
norms and values of the decentralisation concept.
A former
Presiding Member of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Nana Kofi Senya,
thinks the dissolution of the local representatives of the people was a
deliberate attempt by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government
to take over the roles of the constitutionally mandated assembly members
in the country.
Referring to Article 245 of the 1992
Constitution of Ghana, he noted that MMDAs were enjoined to be
responsible for levying and collection of taxes, rates, duties and other
fess. Assembly members, he continued, are therefore elected to the
various MMDAs to represent their electorate with a view to approve fee
fixing resolutions, budgets, by laws and action plans and liaise between
the electorate and the local government ministry.
However, it
has been realised that with the dissolution of the assemblies,
government intends usurping the constitutional responsibilities of the
elected Assembly members, with allegations of the Kumasi Metropolitan
Assembly, especially plotting to hand over public toilets in the
metropolis, to party foot soldiers.
Nana Senya made these assertions in a release issued to the media in Kumasi last week.
“A
visit to the MMDAs and their sub-metros, one will witness a sight of
the MMDCEs, their party executives and of course party foot soldiers
which are now planning and implementing programmes and strategies to add
up to their fortunes for the upcoming general elections,” Nana Senya
alleged.
He continued that ‘the plot to hand over toilets in the
metropolis over to the party loyalists should be discarded in its
entirety.”
It would be recalled that the Supreme Court stopped
the running of the District Assembly elections which should have come
off in March this year, after an aggrieved aspirant petitioned the court
that he had been unfairly treated, praying it to call off the
elections.
This brought about a lot of hue and cry from various
angles in the country. And while some of the aspirants lamented about
how much time, efforts and resources they had invested into the botched
elections, social commentators were also concerned about how much
financial loss the Electoral Commission had caused the nation.
In
all these, the former presiding member of KMA was of the opinion that
by the constitution of Ghana, government could have extended their
mandate to enhance the decentralisation concept Ghanaians have been
passionately talking about.
“In Article 113 clauses 1 and 2 of
the 1992 Constitution, it states that ‘Subject to Clause 2 of this
Article, Parliament shall continue for four years from the date of its
first sitting and shall then stand dissolved,” and (2) At any time when
Ghana is actually engaged in war, Parliament may, from time to time by
the resolution by the votes of not less than Two-thirds of all Members
of Parliament extend the period of four years specified in clause 1 to
not more than twelve months at a time expect that the life of Parliament
shall not be extended under this clause for more than four years,” he
pointed.
By this, he stated that same could have been done in the
case of MMDAs if the NDC government really wanted to enhance the
nation’s decentralisation concept which has been so politicised.
He
said per section 19 sub-section Clause 2 of the Local Government Act,
the Executive Committee of the assembly which is dominated by Assembly
members had by law, been mandated to perform certain functions at the
assemblies but now the MMDCEs appointed by the president were performing
those functions, and, without the larger participation of the people.
Hon. Nana Senya was of the opinion that the deputy minister of local
government who effected the dissolution of the MMDAs could have
collaborated with Parliament after the ruling of the Supreme Court
suspending the District Assembly level elections, and a better decision
could have been arrived than what the nation has now.
Calling for
a vibrant participation in governance from civil society, the former
presiding member thought that politicians had taken Ghanaians for a ride
for far too long and it was high time Ghanaians rose up and asked
meaningful questions of government. |
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