President Akufo-Addo has reiterated his commitment to pushing for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
It was one of the key manifesto promises the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made during the 2016 electioneering campaign which ushered the party into power.
Speaking at an orientation for newly appointed MMDCEs at the Institute of Local Government in Accra yesterday, the president noted, “It is a well-known fact that I belong in the group that has always advocated for the direct popular election of chief executives; it is now a manifesto commitment of the ruling NPP party so you must be aware that it is going to be fulfilled.
“Indeed, the process for the amendment of the Constitution will soon be underway which will make you the last batch of chief executives to be appointed under the current system.”
President Akufo-Addo is therefore poised to push for the passage of the law that would make the position of MMDCEs elective in the year 2020.
Justification
To those of them who would be interested in going for the elections under the new system, the president indicated, “Your conduct and your performance will determine whether you will earn the confidence of your electorate.”
In spite of the fear expressed by some people over the decision to get MMDCEs elected, President Akufo-Addo said, “I do not think there is anything to fear in the direct election of chief executives.”
According to him, “It should lead to a deepening of our democracy and better accountability; it is time to make it work.”
He was of the belief that “this is a good time to be in-charge of the district, municipal and metropolitan areas.”
According to Nana Addo, “In our pursuit of aggressive industrialization and value addition to agricultural produce, the district is the focus in modernizing agriculture, improving production and efficiency, achieving food security, as well as profitability for our farmers; the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEG) will be implemented at the constituency level where the allocation of the equivalent of $1 million annually will be used to finance infrastructure and other facilities in the localities.”
Once established, President Akufo-Addo assured, “The development authorities for the Northern, Middle and Coastal Belts will serve as the primary executing agencies under IPEG to oversee the implementation of the ‘$1 million, one constituency’ project.”
He stressed the fact that the ‘one village, one dam’ policy initiative, like all the innovative initiatives to the economy, are all local initiatives and therefore expressed the hope that a genuine sense of fair competition would come into the operations of the various district assemblies across the country.
Charge
“We should be able to see the difference in the quality of schools from one district to the other, due to the quality of the supervision. We should be able to judge for ourselves quite soon what one district does with its $1 million and compare with what another district does with its,” the president charged.
“You have the opportunity to change your districts from places where people move from, to places where people move to; let your factories thrive and you will discover that people will move to your districts instead of the current situation where our young and strong people move to Accra and Kumasi,” President Akufo-Addo declared.
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