DEPOLITICISE OUR DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

OUR country has witnessed a rather unfortunate trend, since the overthrow of the First Republic, of projects being abandoned after a regime change.
That development has not helped our forward march, as there is no continuity in the development agenda of the country.
It all began when, after the overthrow of the First President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the seven-year development plan of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) government crafted in 1963 was abandoned.
That development blueprint meant to transform the country was then described as a very ambitious plan and if it had not been abandoned, could have helped to leapfrog Ghana from a poverty stricken country into an African economic giant.
Since then, the country has had various economic blueprints, such as the Operation Feed Yourself (OFY) programme, the Vision 2020 and currently the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II).
Whether GPRS II can stand any future regime change is only a matter of conjecture. For the country to accelerate its development agenda, stability is required on both the economic and political fronts.
If policies, especially economic plans, are varied just because of a regime change, we risk perpetuating the culture of inconsistency in our efforts to break the back of poverty, disease and unemployment.
It is in this context that the DAILY GRAPHIC welcomes the position of the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Mr J. H. Mensah, that Ghana can attain its goal of a middle-income status if politicians learn to divorce partisan politics from national economic objectives.
The suggestion from one of our society’s leading lights, himself a member of the committee that crafted the seven-year development blueprint of the First Republic, is quite timely because of the forthcoming elections.
Already, the politicians seeking our mandate to govern are canvassing various positions to win our votes.
Slogans restating the flag bearers’ commitment to work towards a better Ghana have started appearing on billboards, in the newspapers and on the airwaves. This presupposes that all the flag bearers wish the best for Ghana and its people.
Really, if that is the position of our flag bearers, then it does not matter very much who is in power because any of them who is elected will place Ghana and its people first before his political party and its members.
Unfortunately, during most of the regimes that we have had, the party card entitled one to juicy contracts and high offices in the public service without regard to the capabilities of the person seeking those positions.
Ghana is endowed with the necessary human and material resources to lift itself out of the group of nations referred to as developing countries. That can be achieved if the government that the people elect provides a platform for all to have a say in the vision for the attainment of a middle-income status by 2015.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, calls on all the political parties, especially the ruling party, to build consensus on the long-term development plan for the country to ensure ownership at the national and local levels of our governance structure.
We call on all the political parties to contribute to the development plan so that in the event of regime change, our new rulers will have no basis to discontinue the implementation of the plan.
In all that we do, Ghana should always be placed above all sectarian considerations.
The moment that happens, Ghanaians will buy into the company called Ghana Incorporated and work hard to attain the national vision of transforming the economy through our collective efforts.