Redefining our development agenda

The present generation of leaders can do it if they set themselves to the task of selfless leadership. That is why there is the need for a national vision, instead of political party manifestoes.

When parties rely on manifestoes, minority groups do not think they belong to the national vision and, therefore, sit on the fence.

Our position is that the government must rethink its position on the role of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in the national development process.

Since the coming into being of the 1992 Constitution, successive governments have reduced the NDPC to a kind of “Siberia” where people they seek to punish for some wrongdoing or intend to get rid of are sent.

Article 87 (1) of the Constitution states: “The commission shall advise the President on development planning policy and strategy.”

It also enjoins the commission to, at the request of the President, Parliament or its own initiative, “study and make strategic analyses of macro-economic and structural reform options; make proposals for the development of multi year rolling plans taking into consideration the resource potential and comparative advantage of the different districts of Ghana; make proposals for the protection of the natural and physical environment; make proposals for ensuring the even development of the districts of Ghana by the effective utilisation of available resources, and monitor, evaluate and co-ordinate development policies, programmes and projects”.

Clearly, under the Constitution, the NDPC is the body mandated to lead the country’s development process, for which reason it needs to be made up of competent and qualified individuals who can craft a national policy that will accelerate national development.

Membership of the commission should be non-partisan and the policy document it comes up with should be binding on all governments. That is the only way Ghana can make any forward move.

For many decades now, our attitude towards development has been ad hoc, or as Professor Atsu Ayee said at the J.B. Danquah Memorial Lectures on Monday, we have addressed our problems in a knee-jerk fashion that has further compounded the country’s development process.

 We have not planned in advance and we have not ensured that we have a national policy binding on all governments as some of the global economic giants have done. In many developed countries, irrespective of which party or individual is in power, the policies remain the same. This is the path Ghana should chart. Our vision should remain the same and the Daily Graphic believes that in our present dispensation the goal must be to kill hunger in every home, give access to education to all children and attain other objectives in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In a country where every issue is politicised, we should know that the politicisation of issues bordering on the country’s development will not be in the national interest. Only a national policy adhered to by all will create the paradise Ghanaians dream of.

The Daily Graphic urges the government to revisit the functions of the NDPC with the view to resourcing it to lead the crusade to move the country to the upper middle-income status in the shortest possible time.

We know we are capable of doing that if our leaders provide the stimulus for the attainment of a better Ghana.