Let's keep duty bearers on their toes - Prof. Karikari

Professor Kwame Karikari, the Board Chairman of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, has called on the citizenry to put duty bearers on their toes and not shy away from holding them accountable.

“People have become too accommodating of policy makers making them take the citizenry for granted,” he said.

Professor Karikari said this at a two-day capacity building workshop for the media and civic society Organisations in Ho on the fight against inequality in Ghana.

It was organised by OXFAM, UNICEF, SEND-Ghana and the Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition.

Prof. Karikari said the situation had fuelled growth inequality across the country and that even though there had been visible economic growth, the poverty bracket had expanded.

He said it was an illusion for voters to think their votes were powerful enough not to fight for social change.

He called for a conscious awakening of the citizenry to fight for their rights and help minimize the gaping space between the “haves and have nots”.

Mr Zakaria Sulemana, the Programmes Manager, Inequality Programmes Ghana, OXFAM, bemoaned the creation of inequality through disparity between income groups and regions in accessing basic healthcare even though Ghana had made progress in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He said a child born to one of the wealthiest homes in Ghana was three times more likely to make it past the fifth birthday as compared to a child from a poorer home.

Mr Sulemana appealed to the Government to expand the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty to tackle extreme poverty, address the “most extreme disparities,” and improve redistribution of interventions.

He advised the Government to develop a medium term expenditure framework for social protection including incremental increases in national budget allocation to sustain national financing of social protection programmes.