The Days Of Appointing MMDAs Should Be Over, Effiduase-Asokore MP Laments
Hon. Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, Member of Parliament for Effiduase-Asokore, has disclosed how grievous it is for the Chief Executive Officers of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to be appointed by the Government of the day.
He said that the onus of developing various local areas are incumbent on the Chief Executive Officers of the Assemblies, yet many people expect Members of Parliament to do such works.
According to the savvy Lawmaker, the huge expectations from the citizenry for Members of Parliament to initiate development projects are misplaced.
There are many others like Hon. Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie in the county who think that there should be functional citizen involvement at the local government just like the National, leading to enhanced citizen participation in local governance.
However, the current structure and composition of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), which underlie the concept and practice of local governance in Ghana skews the
accountability of duty bearers to the central government.
Chief Executives of the various
MMDAs as well as 30% of the membership composition of the MMDAs are appointed by the President of the Republic.
Speaking on Opemsuo 104.7 FM morning show, Nkwantannanso, hosted by George Opoku Mensah Agudey, he expressed that, “I am against Government appointing various Chief Executive Officers for the MMDAs because in reality they are supposed to initiate various developmental projects from the District Assemblies Common Fund, but we don’t see that. Members of Parliament are seen as agents of development which is untrue.”
He reckoned, “there should be a law so that there will be elections to elect the Chief Executives for various MMDAs just not the President and Parliamentarians so that they can be held responsible.”
In conclusion, he said, “If you are an MP and your Chief Executive Officer is not good, it is likely you’re going to lose your seat because every failure is associated with the MP”.
Source: Opemsuo.com / Sasu Danquah.
