Some political parties in Ghana have kicked against calls for the formation of a national government of technocrats.
According to them, there are technocrats and experts who are currently working in government therefore, the call is needless.
This follows a suggestion by the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, his Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson that there should be a break in partisan politics to give the nation a reprieve from what he describes as political turmoil.
[contextly_sidebar id=”zowXsTwbWoQHNvN17ObgZmYwTONlxAxQ”]According to Cardinal Turkson, the national government of technocrats will stabilize the political turmoil and fashion out a national development agenda that will stand the test of time.
But speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Monah said the concept being recommended by Cardinal Turkson is not necessary.
He made a counter suggestion that “if we want a government of the technocrats, then let’s take a government of the clergy since they claim to be closer to God than the rest of us are so they will be doing the will of God.”
He stressed that technocrats are actively partaking in party politics saying, “we have educationists that are in politics – go to Parliament and see the number of educationists that we have there, go to Parliament and see the number of engineers we have there, check in the government and see the number of doctors and other professionals that we have there and so when you say a government of technocrats, what do you really mean?”
Monah advised that the clergy, together with the general public should rather have the courage to call for change “when we think that the current situation does not support what we want so that we can continue to experiment and out of which we will get best but I think the clergy are not courageous enough.”
The Convention People Party’s (CPP) chairperson, Samia Nkrumah was also of the opinion that multi party democracy should not be blamed for Ghana’s current developmental challenges.
According to her, Ghana must endeavour to “decolonize our economy to free ourselves from the dependency syndrome and to make sure that local productivity increases and that we will build a strong manufacturing base.”
Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says it is only an amendment to the constitution which will give the green light for formation of the national government of technocrats.
“Political parties cannot agree on something that is not constitutional and once it is not constitutional, then it cannot be workable,” said George Lawson, a Dputy General Secretary of the NDC.
He described Cardinal Turkson’s suggestion as a “good call but the fact is that, we have a hitch somewhere and that is the constitution. If it demands that we have to amend the constitution, then that will be a big hurdle.”
In a related development, a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Aggrey Darko wants the nation to concentrate on how to develop a long-term vision but not the formation of a national government of technocrats.
“I support a call for a futuristic approach to our development because that is what national planning is all about – you make projections…we must make sure the dreams are realized and that is where the experts and technocrats will come in,” he remarked.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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