The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has admonished the Institute of Economic Affairs to stop creating confusion over the appropriate institution adequately resourced to organize presidential and parliamentary debates in the country.
The IEA on Thursday descended heavily on the NCCE for announcing that it will also organize debates ahead of the November polls.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LSRn69kHPevqqmrhEQQneRLJef6hy5dh”]According to the IEA, a civil society organisation which has been hosting such debates over the years, the NCCE lacks the capacity and credibility to organize such event.
It has further urged the NCCE to instead focus on its core mandate of educating the public on their civic responsibilities.
We’re organising dialogue not debate
But speaking to Citi News, Samuel Akuamoah, Deputy Commissioner at the NCCE argued that the NCCE has a broad mandate.
“It is not a fight; it is not a confrontation between the NCCE and IEA. Maybe it is a kind of misunderstanding, maybe a kind of miscommunication that has gone on and I believe we should not carry it over. We should let it stop here and let everybody understand that the NCCE is a constitutional body that has a broad mandate to do a lot of work and we are also ready to give capacity to civil society organizations and all state actors as well to also engage in terms of public education and engagement,” he added.
We have partnered with others
On the assertion that the NCCE is not well equipped with resources to organize such debates, Mr. Akuamoah said they have partnered with a number of institutions as well as the media to champion this agenda.
Mr. Akuamoah also disclosed that the NCCE is instead organizing a dialogue series and not a debate.
“We have a very broad mandate so there is nothing in this country about governance that does not affect the NCCE. The IEA is talking about presidential debate; we are talking about presidential dialogue, what is the problem? We have a different approach to engaging the presidential aspirants on an existing platform that we have; the dialogue series, which we have tried and tested since 2012.”
“…I’m amazed that the IEA can make such reference to us as being an organization that lacks capacity and credibility to organize engagement with presidential aspirants, this is ridiculous,” he added
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin