Building consensus: key to implementing national projects - Rev Antwi-Tumfuor

The Reverend Emmanuel Antwi-Tumfuor, Pastor, Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Elom Parish, Ho-Bankoe has called for a national dialogue among the country’s political space to work in unity during the formulation and implementation of national projects.

This, according to the Clergyman would help the inputs for any projects reflect the diverse opinions and avoid the temptation of abandoning projects when there was change of government.

He said the decision not to continue with national projects could be attributed to political expediency, adding that any project taken on the altar of political expediency had the potential of being abandoned in case of a change in government.

Rev Antwi-Tumfuor, also the National Director of Evangelism of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana made the call in his Easter message and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

“I appealed to the various authorities, to let transparency and accountability underpin any contractual agreements, to forestall any excuse of reviewing them at the expense of the tax payer.

Ghana has lost millions of Cedis on these abandoned projects and we cannot allow this to continue, else posterity will not forgive us”, he added. Touching on national dialogue on plastic waste management, the Clergyman called on waste management experts to fashion out innovative ways of tackling the plastic waste menace.

“Our Government and the private sector including; religious leaders must lead the crusade to mobilise the needed resources that should be invested heavily in research to come out with the best mechanism to deal with the plastic waste challenge”, he posited.

He urged the country to continue with the promotion of waste segregation in homes, churches, schools, offices and the community as most of the waste mixed together, could be recycled for reuse.

On prudent use of taxes, Rev Antwi-Tumfuor said the country needed to guard against pursuing tax policies with heavy dependence on the few, calling for the broadening of the tax net as well as encouraging tax compliant society.

“Managers of our taxes must avoid flamboyant lifestyles, which send wrong signals to the taxpayers that their money is not being prudently managed,” he said.

On the energy situation, the Clergyman urged authorities to tap into the expertise of Ghanaians to offer better alternatives to deal with the power challenge.

He said the country needed to re-orient its mindset and attitude, where views of experts were judged with political affiliations.

He was of the view that if someone perceived to be from an opposition political party was the viable option to tackling the energy crisis, then, the government should not shy away from adopting it for the larger national interest.

Rev Antwi-Tumfuor stated that the economic loss due to the intermittent light out could be avoided if the country assembled patriotic citizens with the needed know-how to proffer workable solutions to the energy problem.

He urged all to demonstrate forgiveness, sacrifice, humility, renewal of hope, self-denial and put the interest of others first as we collectively explore the unity in diversity to accelerate national progress.

“We need to do away with old habits that breed disunity, which tend to undermine progressive policies for the national good,” he said.