NCCE DIRECTOR CAUTIONS DCES (PAGE 12, JAN 11, 2011)

THE Upper West Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Ben N. Banye, has cautioned District Chief Executives (DCE’s) to learn to stay and work in their respective districts.
He noted that the practice where DCE’s were always loitering in the regional capitals must be discouraged so that people at the grass roots would appreciate their roles as representatives of government at the local level.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Wa, Mr Banye said such attitudes by some DCE’s held back efforts to widen the scope and entrenched governance in rural communities.
He said people were presently wide awake and were constantly monitoring the performance of their political leaders, adding that leaders whose stewardship would be deemed unsatisfactory would be rejected when it was time for politics.
He further encouraged people at the grass roots to honour their tax obligations because it complemented other sources of funds used for the development of the respective areas.
“Present-day electorates are not ignorant anymore as it used to be and so I expect politicians to sit up, stop playing on the conscience of electorates and give proper meaning to democracy,” Mr Banye advised.
Commenting on the relations between members of opposing political parties, the NCCE director said there was the need for politicians to recognise one another as their brothers’ keeper.
He said playing politics as if they were at one another’s throat was detrimental to the unity and peace in the society and the entire country.
Sharing his views on the recently held district level and unit committee elections, Mr Banye said the high turnout in rural communities was a manifestation that rural people had come to appreciate the local governance system as compared to the urban areas.
However, he attributed the interest in the elections in some rural areas to the politicisation of the system by certain politicians and advised that the practice must be discouraged.
“I think that the issue of giving assembly members and unit committee members some remuneration must be revisited because it would really entice and motivate people to play very active roles under the local governance system,” he emphasised.
The NCCE director was also happy that the Electoral Commission (EC) involved its outfit in educating the electorate during the assembly elections and said there was the need for all stakeholders to team up to ensure the success of such national exercises.