The Municipal Chief Executive for West Gonja Saeed Muhazu Jibreel has charged Assembly Members to unite to halt the “top-down” approach to development since it defeats the purpose of local governance.
He said the situation where decisions and projects are imposed on residents without consulting to know their pressing needs is killing the local governance system.
Addressing the National and Savannah Regional Executives of Ghana Association of Assembly Members (GAAM), the MCE said “if you take a look at what is happening in the local governance system in Ghana you will realize that if we don’t take time, most of our decisions are going to be coming from the top. And that is virtually killing the local governance system in this country”
He added ” for me ,this association has been formed at the right time to take all these things into consideration so that we will practice the local governance system we say we are practising to the fullest”.
According to the MCE who was ones an Assembly Member “the only people who can send development to the grassroots is the elected Assembly Members because you are those the people can contact first and in the local government system it is the bottom-up approach. It is not top-down but that is how I see, that things are still happening up to now.we should rather take data from the base and now carry it to the top. That is how it is_
“I cannot sit here to determine what an electoral area people need. Except for the elected Assemblymember who come to tell me what they actually want. Though Government has its policies IGF, Common Fund, DDF are driven by the data that we get from the local level”.
The President of Ghana Association of Assembly Members, Charles Adu Asinor said, the Association has been formed to promote local governance and participatory democracy through capacity building and empowerment of Assembly members across the country.
He said the Association is not in any way going fight National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) but rather focus much attention to the welfare of Assembly Members.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Obed Ansah
