Group casts doubts on parties commitment to development
A civil society organisation, Africa Centre for Development and Integrity (CeDI-Africa), has expressed concern about the failure of successive governments to fulfill the promises made in the state of the nation address.
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The group is not pleased about the fact that unfulfilled promises made during such sessions are not revisited in subsequent addresses, which for them, cast doubts on government’s genuine commitment to the development of the nation.
The President and Founder of CeDI-Africa, Mr Benjamin Ohemeng-Baah, at a media forum in Accra on Tuesday said since multi-party rule was reintroduced into the country in 1992 various governments had failed to deliver on most of their promises which was a matter of concern.
It was on the theme “Accountability and Social Justice: A Review of Government’s Vision as contained in the state of the Nation’s Address.”
According to Mr Ohemeng-Baah the current herculean problems facing the nation would continue to persist if elected leaders continue their “business as usual” disposition and pursue their selfish and parochial interest.
He observed that if 50 per cent of promises made by all governments put together were honoured, Ghana would have been a better place to live which would give hope to Ghanaians and the youth in particular who now had lost faith in the political leadership.
He called on all citizens, the media and civil society groups to demand accountability from the government as it is the right to hold leaders accountable.
The Director in charge of Human Rights and Social Justice at the CeDI-Africa, Mr Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, in a presentation touched on three key areas, housing and accommodation, social protection and transparent and accountable government, which for him were critical to human survival for which reason the government, as a matter of urgency, ought to address the challenges facing those sectors.
Setting the tone for his presentation as he touched on housing and accommodation, he said as a social democratic government it was expected of the NDC administration to tackle the housing deficit with the needed urgency and that it was important for the government to expedite action on the completion of the affordable housing units.
“How many of the low-cost unit houses for lower income groups should we expect this year? How much are these houses likely to cost and about what percentage of reduction in the deficit should we expect from government by the end of its tenure,” Mr Sosu queried.
He proposed that if the government was committed to dealing with the problem of ordinary Ghanaians having to pay large sums of money in rent then as a social democratic government, stiffer punishments including prosecution should be prescribed by governments to deter house owners from continously extorting money from poor ordinary citizens.
On social protection Mr Sosu urged the government to take a critical look at the social welfare system in the country which he described had “broken down”.
“The Social Welfare Departments are seriously under-resourced creating a situation where most of our social welfare issues are un-addressed,” he added.
According to him available statistics indicates that more than 50,000 children were living and working on the streets with nearly 50 per cent in the Greater Accra Region.
Given those statistics, he averred that there were increasing numbers of children who dropped out of school and became street children.
“Being a social democratic government, this situation should be very worrying to the government. Any effort at social protection which leaves out this problem would be completely meaningless,” Mr Sosu who is also a human rights and public interest lawyer stated.
Turning the spotlight on the vexed issue of transparent and accountable governance he called on Parliament to expedite action on the passage to the Right of Information Bill to promote accountability in governance.
“Parliament has failed the people of Ghana by not passing the Bill since February 2010,” he stressed and questioned Parliament’s commitment to ensuring that the Bill was passed.
Story by Sebastian Syme