DEEPENING THE DECENTRALISATION PROCESS

SECTIONS of the public have raised their voices against the siting of some capitals of newly-created municipalities and districts in the country. The ‘red flag’ has been raised very high at Ashaiman where the people are up in arms against the government for siting the municipal capital of Ashaiman/Adenta at Adenta. They have even taken to the streets and threatened to remain on the streets for as long as their voices go unheeded.
The Electoral Commission (EC), which has a major role to play in the creation of the districts, says, “We have not been contacted. We have nothing to do with it.” A former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, has also called on the government to, with immediate effect, withdraw the new Legislative Instrument (LI) intended to set up the 28 new district assemblies that are awaiting parliamentary approval because they are illegal.
According to Mr Ahwoi, the EC, which was mandated by law to demarcate the boundaries, had not done so and, therefore, the instrument, when passed, would violate the Local Government Act.
It appears that lessons are not being learnt from the creation of new districts since 1988 when the district assemblies were increased from 65 to 110 in a major leap to bring governance to the doorstep of the people. At that time, the issue was thrown to the people to provide the infrastructure if they so desired that their areas should be considered for upgrading to the status of districts.
The protracted dispute between the people of Agotime Kpetoe and Adaklu following the siting of the capital of the Adaklu-Anyigbe District at Agotime Kpetoe is too fresh to recall.
The issues being raised by sections of the communities indicate that as a people, we have not learnt lessons from the concerns raised in the past. It is also imperative to emphasise that in exercises like the creation of districts, where many interest groups are at stake, it would be difficult to satisfy all those interest groups.
The people see the location of a district capital in their towns as a privilege, since it comes with additional infrastructure and other facilities. In order to avoid the litigation over the siting of district capitals and bring the people together to develop their communities, the government, in future, should exhaust the consultation processes before making the district capitals public. Dialogue can lead to compromises.
The time and resources being spent now on explaining or rationalising the decisions of the government could have been used to advance the process. Broad consultations will bring about peace and set the new districts on the path of development, instead of the present situation where some peole refuse to be part of the new districts. A functional decentralised systrem will give every citizen a lasting stake in the future of his/her community.
The Daily Graphic finds it difficult to determine whether the voices being raised against the new district capitals are representative enough or they are coming from the vociferous minority. But the success of the decentralised system of governance depends on the active involvement of all. The will of the people must be the authority of our political leaders where the views of the minority and the most vulnerable are also factored into the decision-making process.
The issues at stake in selecting a town as a district capital are not matters of passion and emotions. They are based on rational considerations because goverance at all levels must have legitimacy in the eyes of the governed.
Let the authorities act quickly to get everybody to support this major national policy of deepening democratic governance in the country, for, as Edmund Burke puts it, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”