As election that could be described as “fierce” and a “test” of Ghana’s democratic faith draws nearer, Ghanaians have been reprimanded to resist bribery from politicians who for want of power would attempt bribing them.
“Bribery has always made it difficult for citizens to hold politicians accountable so, the society must be ready to resist petty gifts such as bags of rice, soaps, cash and other forms of inducement during this election to improve our governance system”, he said.
The Tamale Metropolitan Director of National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Alhaji Abdul-Razak Sani who gave this advice during a community durbar on election education held at Malishegu, a suburb of Tamale observed that citizens who are supposed to hold duty bearers responsible and accountable are unable to do so because of various inducements they receive before, during and after elections.
This, he said must be resisted this time to ensure that quality, hardworking, and incorruptible persons are elected to handle national affairs to improve people’s livelihood.
The durbar which was organized by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) with financial support from the European Union (EU) under the Support for Women’s Participation in Elections (SWOPE) was to help deepens the understanding of election procedures and also encourage particular women in the community level to participate in governance processes.
SWOPE is a programme designed and finance by the European Union (EU) and being implemented by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), a civil society organizations in northern region and is aimed to strengthening civil society to strengthen and enhance women’s participation and representation at the local and national level governance in the northern region.
The programme is being implemented in the following districts in the region; Tamale, Bimbilla, Yendi, Saboba, Wulensi and Buipe and is targeting women candidates, traditional authorities, opinion leaders, women groups, youth groups, religious leaders, political party leaders and men as part of efforts to get them involve in local, traditional and national governance processes to deepens rule of law, increase women, youth and men’s participation in governance.
The NCCE Director stated that good governance could be possible if the society would resist either financial or material inducements by politicians to win their supports saying politician must be measured by their development plans and programmes that gear towards improving livelihoods, quality education and health and infrastructural development and his/her ability to be able to deliver.
Alhaji Abdul-Razak also appealed to the people to come out and participate in the forthcoming biometric registration exercise in order not to be disenfranchised during elections. He commended GDCA and EU for providing platforms for the education of the people particular women to participate in elections and governance processes.
The field officers of GDCA-SWOPE programme Madam Khadijah Iddrisu and Marriam Kadri appealed to the community members to encourage and support women to participate in elections and governance. According to them, women though were capable of handling positions and contributing to decision making processes, they were denied these opportunities because of socio-cultural practices that prevent them from taking part in local, national and traditional governance processes.
They explained that SWOPE being funded by EU would support women who would contest the upcoming parliamentary elections and those who would be interested in the district assemblies elections in the near future in the region to ensure a larger number of women are elected to take active decision making process both at the national and local levels.
They also encouraged the community members to educate their female wards to prepare them for future responsibilities adding that a girl’s job does not end in a kitchen, a perception they observed is being held by many people in society. The officers also advised their colleague women in the community to negotiate with their husbands to give birth to fewer children that they are capable to catering for.]]>