ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON  OBOSHIE SAI COFIE MINISTER FOR INFORMATION AND NATIONAL ORIENTATION AT LEGON CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS UNIVERSITY GHANA ON 24TH OCTOBER 2007

THEME:       CITIZENS INPUT TOWARDS ATTAINING FASTER
                    SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Mr Chairman,
Ambassador Kobina Sekyi,
Students of the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA)
Friends and Fellows Citizens,
Distinguished Guests,

I bring you greetings and the commendation from the Government of Ghana.

Thank you for inviting me to be the keynote speaker at this august event. I am both honoured and quite privileged,  to have this opportunity to share with you my thoughts about the role each of us plays in the implementation of His Excellency the President’s vision for our nation’s development in the next several years. I say several years, because decisions made and actions taken during his term of office, will continue to influence and impact upon our national life for many years to come.

Citizens’ participation is not only a constitutional matter but both a political and socio-economic right. I would like to talk about the reasons why citizen participation is important and what this administration is doing to facilitate the dialogue between government and the nation’s people. I look forward to your thoughts and questions at the end of my presentation.
 
One of the key characteristics of the 1992 Constitution is its empowering of citizens of this country to take the destiny of the nation in our own hands. Indeed, the Constitution states that the sovereignty of the nation resides in the citizens of this country and the Kufuor administration believes that this must be the starting point for any discussion on citizens’ participation in policy setting and socio-economic development. The participation of citizens in the development process is therefore a constitutionally mandated right and responsibility.

Citizen participation is an integral part of Ghana’s democratic process. However, we must not take our current democracy for granted. Ghana has a democracy because people fought for it. Some risked their lives and liberty in the struggle and we who are enjoying the benefits need to sustain it by understanding and promoting the various rights and responsibilities that are the underpinnings of any true democracy.

Gone are the days when the majority of governments in Africa were military or personal dictatorships that paid little attention to the views or wishes of their citizens and oppressed and harassed those who opposed them. Today, only a few of such anachronisms remain on the continent and the wind of change blowing them away appears to be irreversible.

Even the African Union which has replaced the Organisation of African Unity has created institutions that enable members of parliament and civil society to participate in the activities of the continental body. I say this to emphasise my point that we are well and truly set on the road to democracy not only in Ghana but throughout the African continent.

For most people democracy starts and stops with their ability to cast their vote and or voice their views. Those are indeed important elements of democracy which must be celebrated. The right to vote and express our opinions is very important and is in itself a part of the participatory principle. As we are all aware, for long periods of our country’s history the citizen was unable to vote or freely voice his or her views.

Most Ghanaians who have returned to the country after years abroad have said that the most dramatic changes in the country’s profile is not the new buildings and other physical infrastructure, but the wind of freedom that allows people to freely express their views, including even making negative and derogatory statements about the head of state.

We could have an all-night debate about why citizens’ participation is a good thing beyond the fact that the Constitution empowers citizens and that our democracy mandates that citizens have the right and responsibility to participate in socio-economic development. But how do we explain the value of citizens’ participation to the development process beyond saying that it is good and even necessary.

In my attempt to provide that explanation, I urge you all to consider these additional propositions:

1. Public vigilance through enhanced participation is a bulwark against corruption, unearned privilege, and abuse of political and economic power. Citizen participation can help to create a system that depends completely on merit and not on any other consideration.

2. This also assumes a major effort to promote a culture of consensus and capacity-building in business, labour and other types of organisations in order to increase their ability to plan, negotiate, and effectively to assume the rights and duties inherent in democratic participation.

3. Citizens’ participation across different interest groups and geographic demarcations is essential in order to stimulate and stabilize economic and social growth. State structures must work with these groups to help them to work effectively and efficiently to modernise the production sector, enhance competitiveness, promote economic growth and provide basic social services efficiently and universally.

4. In this direction, and in line with the spirit of our Constitution and also as part of our continuing democratic development, it is important to establish institutions, traditions and practices that allow all citizens and groups to participate fully in decision-making on the various matters that affect them.

If citizens are to be able to participate fully in socio-economic development, the country must enforce or reinforce existing mechanisms for ensuring equality in all respects for all the citizens of this country. We must avoid and outlaw all forms of social, ethnic, sexual and geographical forms of discrimination. We need to stress the need for gender parity and equality in all spheres of life. These are all areas which have been addressed in all sincerity, by this government.  However, as a nation, we still have a way to go.

This administration has a strong focus on education with the view to enabling all citizens to be able to participate fully in policy decisions and implementation. Education and training have a fundamental role in the country's economic, cultural, social and political development. They are central to the strategy of equity and national unity, and vital for economic modernisation and international competitiveness. This is why the government has revisited educational reforms and instituted a new strategy in the sector.

As we in the Ministry of Information and National Orientation are very much aware, education is the key to the implementation of coherent and forceful system of political, social, cultural and moral reform such as we want to achieve with the National Orientation Programme. Education allows us as a nation to affirm and disseminate the moral and cultural values and the concepts and behaviour patterns which are the foundations of democracy, including a respect for human rights, for the cultural diversity of Ghana and for the productive work of its people. We are also responsible for the protection of the environment and for reinforcing those values and mechanisms that constitute the basis for a culture of peace.

The integration and retention of children of school age into the educational system is one of the main ideas behind not only the school feeding programme, and the much applauded capitation grant, but also the inclusion of kindergarten education from the age of four, in the school system. In addition, we are instituting educational programmes in local languages so that local issues can be discussed in languages understood by the majority of the people.  The practice of speaking English to discuss purely local issues is rather alienating.

Outside of the formal educational structures we are developing training programmes in communities and work places for the training and technical upgrading of adult citizens in order to enhance their capacity for participation. We also need to provide training to enable social organisations at the municipal, regional and national levels to take part in socio-economic development

The active participation of women is essential for Ghana’s economic and social development, and while the state has a duty to promote the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, it is essential that we examine all our cultural and traditional practices to ensure that they do not impede women’s access to political processes and public participation. Women’s representation is increasing rapidly at all levels of government, including the district councils, parliament and I must say the Cabinet. A good place to start emphasising equality is through the school system where we can imbue all the children equally with confidence and knowledge.

Media and media institutions constitute the most important channel through which citizen voices can be heard. Over the last six years, Ghanaians have enjoyed unprecedented freedom of information and expression and giant strides are being made to get the Freedom of Information Bill to become law. There are other legislative processes going on that are going to strengthen the public communications sector and make the media even more accessible. However, we are very far from being able to boast that all Ghanaians have equal access to the media.

Almost all newspapers are based in Accra as are nearly all television stations. The geographic spread of radio is a little better but even so the main focus is on activities in the nation’s capital city. At the moment we are running a decentralised system of government but there are many challenges to overcome before we can say truly that the focus of attention has shifted from the centre to the local scenes. This should be the aim of our media strategy because without such a strategy media access will be limited to the urban areas, which then in turn also creates an even greater gap between the urban and rural areas.

As you are all aware, the name of the Ministry of Information was changed to the Ministry of Information and National Orientation in 2005. It was not just a name change but a response to the felt need to form a consensus by which we can all move as a people into the future. It is not an ideological but a programmatic response to a real challenge for now and the future. Implicit in the President’s vision is the fact that we were going to have to build on what we have and not have to re-invent the wheel. At the same time the President recognised that culture is dynamic and should be open to new ideas and make use of new opportunities such as technologies and globalisation.

With the launch of the programme, we have entered the implementation phase and we think that we have got it right. As you all know, we have distilled the essence of the programme into the following precepts which we have called “the Pillars of National Orientation”.  They are:

• PROUD TO BE GHANAIAN
• PATRIOTISM AND SPIRIT OF GHANA FIRST
• POSITIVE AND CAN-DO-IT ATTITUDE
• PRODUCTIVITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
• DEDICATION AND DISCIPLINE

When you analyse them closely you realise that their main import is to enable every citizen to be able to play his or her part in national development. The key to unlock what we are trying to achieve is in the final part of the topic, which is to achieve faster socio-economic development. I want to link what we are trying to do with the word “faster”.

All the five pillars address much wider concerns which would be too cumbersome and unwieldy to put on paper or present to the nation. But taken together, they cover every facet of life. More importantly, they are meant to accelerate our development because if we are all pulling in one direction, and know where we are going, we are going to get to our destination faster than if we were pulling different direction or worse are unsure of our destination.

My dear colleagues and distinguished graduate students, very soon you will be finished with your courses and will be unleashed into the wider world outside the serene and beautiful world of the University of Ghana, Legon.

You must recognize that what is needed now is a dramatic attitudinal change in the entire citizenry of our dear nation.  As the leadership of the country plays a facilitating role, it is left to us as individual citizens to come on board and to do our part.

Each of us must play a leadership role.  We must be able to change attitudes in our individual surroundings – be it in our home, our workplace, our church or our residential community.  We do not have the luxury of time.  We must put behind the old cliche that attitudinal change must be slow.  This time, we must make it happen in the shortest possible time to enable our dear county to catch up and take our rightful place within the comity of nations.

Change We Must and the TIME is NOW.

I thank you for your time and God bless you all.

• Email this page
• Printer friendly version