THE Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, has said it is proper and prudent that citizens should become very conversant with the Constitution to enable them participate effectively in the activities of nation building and national development.
He said the involvement of the people in the current democratic dispensation would ensure that the 1992 Constitution is defended and upheld at all times against all forms of abuse and violation.
Mr Amenowode said this in an address read on his behalf at the launch of the 10th annual national constitution week celebrations on the theme: “Enhancing Constitutionalism through Effective Citizens’ Participation for Good Governance”, at Ho.
He said the celebration would re-echo and trumpet the need for the citizenry to eschew apathy and get involved in the collective effort to leapfrog the development of the nation.
This is because good governance is a necessary ingredient for achieving sustainable development but this cannot be achieved without the active participation and involvement of the people.
Mr Amenowode noted that it was significant that Ghana was the first African country, south of the Sahara, to wrestle and attain independence from British colonial rule in 1957, adding that the country had become a source of inspiration for other countries and liberation movements intheir fight for the independence of their respective countries.
“Ghana has become an oasis of peace and a beacon of hope in the sub-region. This has been possible because of its commitment to democratic principles, good governance, rule of law, respect for fundamental rights and good neighbourliness”, he stated.
The regional minister said society was dynamic and that the fundamental law should also be dynamic to respond to the changing needs of society and the exigencies of the time, hence the need for cooperation from the general public towards the work of the presidential constitutional review commission to enable them work towards the possible amendments to the constitution to enable it respond to the needs of the people.
In a welcome address, the Volta Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education(NCCE), Mr Fidelis S.K Attoh, said all constitutions adopted by the nation had witnessed a steady improvement in documentation, each in its own right, as the fundamental and supreme law at the time.
He said all institutions of state must be adequately resourced to play their complementary and multi- sectoral roles efficiently, once the path chosen is all-inclusiveness and consultation for the necessary checks and balances in the body politic.
Mr Attoh said provisions under the decentralisation and local government system were a clear improvement on the old order, expected to propel the nation to achieve the devolution of power needed to realise effective grass roots participation for logical and conclusive community development on a sustainable basis.
“We should avoid systemic failure and desist from paying lip service to the functions to be performed by the urban, town, zonal and area councils, as well as the unit committees in our communities where poverty, hunger, illiteracy, ignorance, disease, high child and maternal mortality rates, squalor, lack of potable water, joblessness and such other challenges are prevalent”, he said.
Mr Attoh said the decentralisation policy is one of the surest ways of job creation and rapid engagement of our rural youth who constantly are on the move, migrating from the rural areas to the urban centres for menial jobs just to eke a living.
He called on the citizens to eschew political, economic, socio-economic and corporate corruption to help move the nation forward.
The Volta Region coordinator of the National Youth Council, Mr Ransford Ocloo, cautioned against the use of the youth as instruments of conflict.
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