SOME OF THE CHIEFS EXPRESSED CONCERN ABOUT THE INABILITY OF THE COUNTRY TO FOLLOW A DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
Nana Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the Senior Minister, has stressed the need for Ghanaians to develop a new mindset that would support the attainment of the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda.
He said Ghana had all that it takes to be prosperous and what was needed now was a change in the attitude and mindset of the people to achieve the collective agenda of mobilizing local resources to speed up national development.
“WHAT WE NEED AT THIS TIME OF OUR DEVELOPMENT IS PATRIOTISM, HONESTY, RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER, OUR LAWS, OUR INSTITUTIONS AND THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT.
“Discipline, hard work, punctuality, responsibility, volunteerism and civic engagement are also very important to achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda,” he told a meeting of the National House of Chiefs (NHC) in Kumasi.
Nana Osafo-Maafo together with a delegation of the Ghana Beyond Aid Committee, was in the House to brief members on the various proposals put together in the Ghana Beyond Aid charter and solicit the views and inputs of the members of the House before it is presented to cabinet and parliament for approval.
He said even though foreign aid had been an integral part of the national development agenda, the country could not continue to depend on it since it had been dwindling in recent times.
Nana Osafo-Maafo stressed the need to enforce various existing laws to help curb corruption, saying the “inability to enforce laws is a major setback on our fight against corruption”.
The Senior Minister also applauded the idea to change the Constitution to elect metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives and said that would help strengthen the power of the citizenry to demand accountability in local governance.
Some of the chiefs expressed concern about the inability of the country to follow a development agenda, which was more sustainable and had the capacity to transform the nation.
According to them, the development and implementation of partisan development agenda by the various political parties which came to power, had been the bane of a focused and sustainable development of the country.
Togbe Afede XIV, President of the House, thanked the government for seeking the views of members of the House in the new development agenda.
He said the House was endowed with accomplished professionals and experts who had experience in various fields to contribute meaningfully to national development discourse and other issues that affected the nation.
Source: GNA
Comments