Chief Executive Officer of the John A. Kufuor Foundation, Professor Baffuor Agyeman-Duah, has called for the advancement of inclusive politics through proportional representation in government.
According to him, the current winner-takes-all system has led to the extreme polarisation of Ghana’s political sphere contributing to the country’s stunted growth.
He made this suggestion in support of his call for a new constitution for Ghana on JoyNews’ 4th Edition of Change Speakers’ Series.
He said, “I think we should advance inclusive politics by proportional representation. A system where parties gain seats in parliament in proportion to the number of votes that they obtain in election. And this, I think will bring more parties to parliament to mitigate the [inaudible] partnership and the winner takes all syndrome.”
He also suggested that the power distribution between the three arms of government i.e. the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, must be redefined to enhance accountability between governance structures and the local level.
“I think local governance should be enhanced with political and fiscal decentralization, so that the assemblies can become the key agencies for community development,” he said.
Professor Agyeman-Duah further called for the inclusion of chiefs in local governance structures.
According to him, “chiefs can be made district assembly presiders so that they can be part and parcel after all they own lands in these areas.”
And finally, to usurp the current winner-takes-all system of governance, Prof. Agyeman-Duah said Ghana’s political players should consider uniting for a peace and progress agenda.
He said an interim special constitutional arrangement should be forged to enable a union government-like system that would promote the uninterrupted development of the country for at least 20 to 30 years in order for the country to catch up to its contemporaries in Asia.
“Because I think if you look at the fact that all the countries that we were in league with in the 1950s have moved beyond third world position to second and first world; Singapore, Malaysia and all of them. They all spent about 20 to 30 years to change their circumstance.
“In Africa, I think Rwanda, President Kagame is almost in the same mode. Within 20 years, Rwanda has changed all because there’s unity of purpose. There’s a single vision towards development. There’s no cahoo- cahoo like we find, you don’t get a parliamentarians throwing punches.
“ All that I think we can stop if we come together, declaring uniting for peace and progress for 20 years and let’s have a focused development, until we can see a real change in our country,” he said.
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