IDEG CELEBRATES

The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) has commemorated its 15th anniversary with a call on Ghanaians to build their capacities in order to capture and dominate the character of political parties in the country. The proposition was made by a former Research Coordinator, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva, Switzerland, in his lecture to commemorate the anniversary in Accra. Speaking on the topic, “Overcoming inequalities and gaps in democratic governance: What role for political parties in Ghana,” the speaker, sought to impassion Ghanaians on attaining a democratic state that is development and growth oriented. Dr Bangura, who currently lectures in Sierra Leone, extensively drew parallels from other jurisdictions in the Nordic, African and European countries to prove that inequality in a democratic system was inimical to any initiatives for economic growth, cohesion and development. Unfulfilled aspirations Setting the tone for his lecture, he said, the euphoria of the upsurge in democracy in many countries in Africa of the 1990s had now waned, because the perception that democracy would enable citizens, open up for them opportunities in the political space and place power in the hands of people, had not been realised. Thus, the heart of democracy, which is equality, had eluded many of the countries that had come into democracy at the time. The results were the apparent growth of economic indicators, without the corresponding growth in the lives of the people. Gaps Dr Bangura identified three gaps in the democratic processes of these countries that had resulted in their current state of inequality and poor governance within democratic processes. He said the failure of citizens and leaders to consolidate the democratic rules of the game, the failure of the key branches of government to hold the executive accountable, and a bifurcated or split electorate that was not flexible and hence lost significance in sanctioning or rewarding wrong or right initiatives, respectively, in a democratic processes, were the three gaps. Embedded in the gaps were a failure by countries and citizens to reform political parties, key actors in the political space, Dr Bangura added. He said the focus had rather been on democratising inter-party competition rather than intra party competition, thus, the inequalities had grown, threatening social stability. He pointed out that countries with low levels of inequalities had a better chance at good outcomes within a democracy. “How do political parties become developmental and vehicles of growth?” Dr Bangura queried as he proposed alternatives to the status quo. For him, achieving growth and equality in democratic context was the challenge that had to be resolved. With examples from the Nordic countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Dr Bangura showed how interest groups, like trade unions, were an integral pressure group in a democratic process that supported policies that were beneficial to all. He said such interest groups influenced political parties and changed the structure of incentives that pushed political parties to act appropriately for beneficial results. As a first step in ensuring equality in African countries, Dr Bangura proposed that the internal workings of political parties needed to be democratised to enable citizens influence their character. To achieve that, political parties needed to open up to public contestations that would prevent the rich from hijacking parties because they were key funders. The basic hallmark of democracy, that is, citizens having an ownership of the vote and a say in politics had to be resorted to, while revenue bargains had to be utilised to correct the disconnection between the state, the party and citizens. He explained revenue bargains as a responsible taxing system which locked the state and its citizens in a pact for development. Dr Bangura explained that because political parties in Africa were not dependent on citizens for funding, they were not accountable to them. The same applied to leaders who were more accountable to donor agencies than their citizens because of donor funds; and that had resulted in most public policy being donor driven. He said leaders took a safe recourse in rent from resources and aid, to absolve themselves from responsibility in accountable governance. He advocated strongly, therefore, for the state sponsorship of political parties, and for parties to be compelled to rely on the citizens for funding. He said that would transform political parties on the continent into reformation instruments at the grass roots. Grateful The chairperson of the IDEG Council of Trustees (COT), Prof Florence Dolphyne thanked all the sponsors of IDEG, particularly the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) for its $1.5 million in 2003 that set the institution on a course of excellence. A member of IDEG’s COT, Prof Akilagkpa Sawyer, said the lecture was timely to refocus the country on some of the gaps bedevilling the country since democratising more than two decades ago. The occasion was used to honour the Executive Director of the Gender and Human Rights Documentation Centre, Mrs Dorcas Coker Appiah, who had helped accommodate IDEG at its inception. The refurbished IDEG house was also formally opened and an office plaque unveiled by the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante. Writer’s email: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh

INSPIRATIONAL BOOKS - PATRICK OTIEKU-BOADU

Books: Success is for Ab-Normal People and Walking into your Financial Freedom; Author: Patrick Otieku-Boadu; Pages: 80 and 109, respectively; Printed by Spearhead Consult, 2012; Reviewed by Caroline Boateng ........................................................................................................................ The twin books by Patrick Otieku-Boadu, continue to define him as an inspirational coach of modern times. While “Success is for Ab-normal People,” seeks to imbue readers with the verve to optimally express themselves in all their endeavours,“Walking into Your Financial Freedom,” complements, by refocusing readers on lessons of personal productivity. The author in the pages of “Success is for Ab-Normal People,” coaches, encourages and urges a life lived above average, that is,“abnormally.” Having well researched biblical characters who lived that ‘ab-normal' life, the author presents them as examples for readers. In bullet form, for easy assimilation, he lists the lessons and philosophies that have guided the lives and actions of great men and women. For instance, readers will get to learn about the ant philosophy, which teaches persistence in the face of obstacles; while in pages on the “Ten Laws of Differentiation,” the principle of the ‘cuboid melon,’ that is, maximising one’s diversity is discussed. “Walking in Your Financial Freedom,” ups the ante in an essential area of every individual’s life... money! Funding addictions, a culture of dissipation and not saving, borrowing, and indiscipline are some of the issues discussed as reasons for the financial constraints that some people face. The hands-on coach that he is, Patrick Otieku-Boadu recognises practical limitations that keep people in a poverty loop, that is, “a dead-end low paying job.” These include person’s mindset, ignorance and the inability to properly plan and budget on resources. He advances cogent reasons for wealth, some of which are, the opportunities to help societies, generations unborn and for causes of God’s Kingdom. Insights within “Walking in your Financial Freedom,” include the six ways in which people make money, and that, surprisingly, includes begging. However, that means of making money does not last, readers will learn. They will also learn the lasting methods of making money, the five wisdom baskets that teach how to apportion resources appropriately and how to be productive and create wealth. The completion of “Walking in Your Financial Freedom,” would undoubtedly leave a reader with the urge or an appetite for an income generating venture, instead of the income spending spree that most people with little money venture into. It provokes readers, be they salaried workers or self-employed, to be financially wise in order to appreciate any income or money that comes their way, turning the funds, however little, into wealth that can be used in the service of humanity. “Success is for Ab-Normal People,” and “Walking in your Financial Freedom,” is highly recommended, for all generational groups. For the impressionable youth, it will provide workable ideas for life. For adults and workers, some of whom are in ‘dead-end jobs,’ it would be the turning point to a fulfilled life. Even for the aged, the two books offer hope and principles that teach that no situation in life is unredeemable. Patrick Otieku-Boadu’s books are replete with biblical principles that offer hope for all. The books are available in all leading stores or can be directly obtained via the email address: potiekuboadu@gmail.com.

MOVES TO IMPROVE UPON PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY

The Centre for Democratic Development, (CDD-Ghana), has provided information on key social services to improve upon public policy advocacy in the country. The data, in user friendly excel files and maps, presents information on the delivery and state of public goods and services like education, health and water. It is freely available on the Internet, and the objective is to furnish advocates, the media, researchers, and anyone engaging at the level of public policy, with facts and figures in their advocacy with those responsible for ensuring the provision of these services and improvement in their delivery. The data was from the 'IAMAWARE' project, launched by the CDD-Ghana in August 2012. The project was captioned, 'IAMAWARE,' that is a contraction of the phrase, 'I am aware," to empower citizens with information they can use to hold those in authority accountable for the delivery of public goods and services. It also provides the information by which public agencies can be assessed on their performance in the provision of these public goods and services. Key findings from the project, publicised at a dissemination workshop, included the fact that ordinary Ghanaians do not have access to duty bearers. There were also findings about the high level of interest in public affairs and issues relating to the management of the economy, and radio being the main source of information for most respondents surveyed. However, in spite of the public awareness on public issues, most respondents did not discuss them among their social groupings. The research also showed the dearth of civic consciousness among most respondents as they said they would not use any form of protest to press home their demands for better service and goods delivery. Presenting the findings, a Senior Research Fellow, Mr Robert Pwazaga, said a pre-election survey was undertaken on August 2012, as well as a post election survey in February 2013. The pre- election survey, provided the basis for discussions in the media on policy pledges by Members of Parliament and aspiring politicians at the local level in some of the 40 districts studied. Mr Pwazaga asked the media to use the information provided for their work and to endeavour to simplify their reporting on public issues, as some respondents said their inability to discuss these within their social groupings was because the issues were complicated For the future, he said, the CDD-Ghana would be expanding the research to monitor the delivery of other public services and goods, such as infrastructure and security. A Senior Fellow of the CDD-Ghana, Mr Francis Tsegah said with the nominations of District Chief Executives currently, the information could provide the constituents with information to get candidates to commit to certain benchmarks. He said some media partners, also used the information for issues-based reporting in some districts. A Deputy Director and Head of Research and Programmes, Dr Franklin Oduro said with programmes such as the 'IAMAWERE,' the CDD-Ghana intended to scale up its stakeholder base and its monitoring on wider public goods and services delivery. Published Daily Graphic, Monday, August 5, 2013

RULE

Book: Rule or be Ruled Author: Patrick Otieku-Boadu Pages: 101 Publishers: Spearhead Consult Reviewed by: Caroline Boateng Rule or be ruled, is a call to leadership. Leadership that is God ordained, required of every individual and necessary for effective living. In this ninth book, the author, Patrick Otieku-Boadu, gives useful guidelines on how to live maximally in all areas of life, be it family, career or education. He begins by setting out the chilling fact that a failure to rule would result in a person being subjected under the rule of others in life. In fact, there is no middle way and either you take control of your live in way that will bring about the change only dreamt about and craved for or bend to the rule of a co-equal or someone younger or less experienced, but who has learned the principles of bearing rule in this life. Using God’s prescription in the Bible for man to rule and have dominion over the earth, the author calls on readers to activate the authority for ruling, programmed into their DNA by God. Leadership begins with the individual, and Rule or be Ruled teaches how one can take charge of his or her life adequately enough to extend rule to others and areas of endeavour. The author calls for a new vision and new thoughts that enables challenges to be seen as possibilities to be seized for success in life. Contrary to popular thinking that ruling is about holding sway and commanding in the public sphere, Rule or be Ruled teaches that ruling begins with ideas, having them, writing them down, mastering them by thinking and rethinking, developing them by fully expressing the ideas into tangible usable services or things. It requires self introspection. “Your ideas are capable of transforming your life. To rule your world, you will need to place value on the ideas that flow through your mind, but many do not value their own thoughts,” the author tells readers. Leadership requires information, and in a chapter on that, Patrick Otieku-Boadu shows how information is the currency to dreams, success and fortune. But information that is priceless is relevant, is needed and applicable for the desired changes in life. Rule or be Ruled shows how this can be achieved. Leadership also requires bearing rule over money, one’s sex life, seizing opportunities, mastering technology and new developments in society. The author’s manner of writing is easy. He communicates simply and directly. The reader would sometimes feel he is being coached by a real life tutor instead although reading the words of the author. He uses several examples of real life situations and experiences of people to emphasise his ideas. Patrick Otieku-Boadu has once again shown his passion for youth development in his work Rule of be Ruled that will inspire the youth to dream, achieve and progress. It is recommended for the youth of Ghana, and anyone who would want to dream again, as life still offers opportunities. Rule or be Ruled can be obtained in all leading bookshops or by contacting the author by the Email address, potiekuboadu@gmail.com .

MUSINGS ON AN ELECTION

Caroline Boateng It does not take an awfully lot for an impassioned supporter of a cause to destroy property and, sometimes even lives, in protest against those not of the same passion. But it takes an awfully enormous amount of resources, human will and the grace of God, to sometimes redress or reverse the destructive effects of untamed political passions. I voted for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and unlike most Ghanaians, have no qualms about making my vote known. I did that because I believed in what they planned to do. I surmised that with the limited resources, it was about time that politicians focused on one sector that could, with all the capital injection and attention, have a cascading effect on the development of other sectors. And for me, education was that sector. Getting all our children, at that impressionable stage in life, senior high, to be in school, was for me a good start. These sympathies were previously with the NDC, when in 2008, I gave my vote to the NDC to kick out the NPP, who by the end of their eight year tenure, had become complacent and were offering a ‘one-size-fit-all,’ solution, that is, capitation grant, school feeding programme, etc., for all other economic challenges that Ghanaians were pointing out to them. I tend to sympathise with parties based on their offerings for the particular electioneering year. I also have a political philosophy, calcified in eight years of journalism and interaction with politicians of all shades that the African political elite cannot be entrusted with power for long periods of time. When they stay in power for long, they become despots, complacent, corrupt and disdainful of the people who lined up in the heat and with much inconvenience to vote for them. Somehow in 2008, I happened to have backed the winning team, unfortunately, this year that has not been so, despite my strong conviction that the NPP was going to win. Since the declaration of the results at 9: 45p.m on Sunday, I have repeated to myself the scripture, “Whatever the Lord does is good,” (I know it’s is from scripture but have forgotten where). I have bolstered up my spirits with that in the face of the rumblings-on of the NPP. Primarily, I believe it was a faux pas by the executives of the NPP to hold a rally at the Obra Spot, the same venue at which NDC held their celebration over their victory in the polls. Holding the rally there to tell supporters that there were misgivings over the results after their executive meeting on Tuesday, December 11, 2012, could have sounded like a plausible excuse for dealing with the mass of supporters impatiently waiting for some information from the leadership. But the result was the show of defiance by supporters who refused to leave the spot until Nana Akuffo Addo had been declared winner. Subsequently, that defiance was transferred to other areas with reports of the harassment of some supporters of the NDC. Some make the excuse that the NPP executives did not tell supporters to harass their opponents, or act in defiance at the Obra Spot. But as I began in my musings, no one needs to tell an impassioned political supporter to act in a certain manner. He or she acts with passion. But when those passions are ignited and burning, it will take more than “telling,” to douse the flames. It was comforting to hear the leadership of the leading political parties speaking out against violence, but I hope that will not be the end. Supporters are not lawyers, or people with the wherewithal to solve the electoral challenges of the NPP. Leadership of the part should keep calm and work diligently, better than the work they did with the monitoring of the election, and proceed to the courts. We must all remember our actions have far reaching consequences. I do not believe that at the international level, anyone can shake of liability when the country is in a conflagration, merely by the excuse that he or she did not tell anyone to act atrociously. The NPP leadership must show themselves as the statesmen and women I thought them to be. (PUBLISHED, DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2012, pg 7)

KUMASI AFTERMATH

Story: Caroline Boateng The Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey is challenging the Ghana Police Service to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of sporadic violence in the aftermath of the declaration of the 2012 election results on Sunday, December 9, 2012. He said that would be in keeping with the ideals of the Kumasi Declaration, the pledge to peace and the abhorrence of impunity, signed by all the leaders of all political parties on November 27, 2012, before the elections. In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Akwetey, who was one of the facilitators of the Declaration, was of the view that the police administration, who were also represented by their chief, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Paul Tawiah Quaye, at the signing, had been emboldened by the presence of their chief and also the Chief Justice of Ghana, Mrs Justice Theodora Wood, at the public show of commitment to peace by the all flag bearers in Kumasi, where the declaration was signed. Thus, the police also did not have to condone impunity because it was being perpetrated by a particular political party supporter. Dr Akwetey in an assessment of the security situation in the country, said Ghana was stable and had gone through the rough patch because despite intermitent violence perpetrated by some, reprisals had been limitted, while some political leaders, like the chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Jake obetsebi Lamptey hadspoken out to point out that a supporter would be criminally liable for violence. He attributed the stability in part to the moral pledge taken by political leadership in the Kumasi Declaration. On the demonstration held in Kumasi by NPP supporters to protest the results of the election, Dr Akwetey was of the view that it lay within the rights of supporters to demonstrate so long as they did that within the confines of the law. He was happy that the demonstration was not characterised by acts of violence. He admonished Ghanaians to believe in themselves and trust in their abilities to do the right thing, and described the future as an interesting phase as the NPP headed for the courts to challenge the election results. He added that all eyes would be on the judiciary then, and how they managed the process would further add to the reputation of the country as a place of democrac and the rule of law.

UG, NEW YEAR SCHOOL

Story: Caroline Boateng The relevance of the annual New Year School of the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE) of the University of Ghana, Legon, has been recognised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The NDPC last, year during the 63rd School on the theme, "One year of oil and gas production: emerging issues,", was represented by its Chairman, Mr P. V. Obeng, who highly recommended the school and charged his officials to forge meaningful ways of collaboration for better policy alternatives for Ghanaians. The 64th School, which begins on January 14 and ends on January 18, 2013, has already had the NDPC contributing to the selection of the theme, which is, "the key to the future health of our nation: improved water, sanitation and hygiene, organisers of the 64th School told journalists at a breakfast meeting in Accra today. The theme for the next school, seeks to target the behaviour and attitudes of the Ghanaian as cadinal in any development effort. In the interaction with journalists, the Director of the ICDE, Prof Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, highlighted the opportunities offered by the school, that is the dispassionate discussion on the issues of sanitation, hygiene and the attitudes of all in getting round the challenge bedevilling the country. He said while people might want to measure the immediate impact of the Schools, the value in education was imeasurable. But he added however, that submissions in the school had fed into the creation of the GETFund for the educational sector and the local content policy for the oil and gas sector. Prof Oheneba-Sakyi added that the keynote address would be given by the chief executive officer of ZOOMlion, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, while the Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing was expected to open the school. The Director of the 64th Annaul New Year School, Dr Micheal Tagoe, said the greatest impact of the school was the creation of a platform for the dispassionate discussion of issues. As an educational institution, he added, the annual new year schools offered the platform for the deliberation on issues by any Ghanaian. After the discussions and submissions, it then behoved on particular public institutions to pick up the relevant submissions and work with those. Dr Tagoe however promised that the school was going to track its impact soon, following up on participants and how institutions used information generated at the school. (Submitted: December 20, 2012. Unpublished. Daily Graphic)