RE: Beggars In Parliament

Our attention has been drawn to a publication on Ghanaweb site with the caption ‘Beggars in Parliament” with Citi FM as the source. In the said publication, the Member of Parliament for Kade Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Asamoah accused the National Commission for Civic Education of doing little to conscientise Ghanaians of the function of the MP.

In the said report, the writer mentioned that he was unable to trace officials of the NCCE for their reaction to the comments by the MP.

We of the NCCE in the Volta Region are not happy with the MP’s accusation and wish to put on record that what he said was not the true picture of what he tried to suggest given the facts as it exists in the operations of the NCCE. It is no secret that the NCCE over the years has made modest progress in bringing civic education to the doorstep of the people on the 1992 Constitution and matters arising out of the practice of the constitution. The Commission has tried over the years to maximize the meager resources available to it to conscientise the good people of Ghana to appreciate important issues bordering the citizenry so that they can be the bulwarks in the defense of the constitution at all times against all forms of abuse and violation. It is also a truism that officers of the Commission have been trekking the nook and crannies of the country to carry out public education in the communities. It is important to know that every NCCE office is expected to carry out not less than 50 outreach programmes in a quarter.

During our outreach programmes ,it became clear that some of the problems facing the MP’s today were the direct result of promises they made during their campaigns. Their promises to build schools, hospitals and other social amenities just to capture the people’s votes has made them automatic development agents because those are the issues dear to the hearts of the people.

Instead of telling the people the truth, their fear of losing the people’s votes has made them to evade the truth . It is therefore very sad that after creating the civic gap , the very the MP instead of blaming himself would rather blame NCCE for his predicament..

We want to assure the good people of Ghana that we would continuously pursue our mandate to produce a civically responsive citizenry with the hope that all stakeholders will support us in the discharge of our desire to make Ghana a civil, stable and prosperous society.