Election of MMDCEs: Ahwoi got it wrong - Nduom

2012 Presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has described as wrong, claims that the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) will be detrimental to the country’s development.

Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, considered by many as an expert in local governance, has argued vehemently against the election of MMDCEs, saying it would further deepen disunity at the grassroots.

In Prof. Ahwoi’s opinion, elected MMDCEs would like to unseat the government for their party to come to power and that “it will be difficult for any partisan government to implement its programmes through hostile DCEs.

But Dr. Nduom, who was once an elected Assembly member of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Municipality, disagreed with Prof. Ahwoi’s stance on the matter, insisting that it is those MMDCEs appointed by the executive president with political considerations who rather deepen disunity at the local level.

“It is they [the appointed MMDCEs] who do not place development at the forefront of their work,” he wrote in a recent facebook post.

The business magnate, who arguably is the biggest private employer in KEEA, providing hundreds of jobs to the locals, said “None of the politically appointed MMDCEs have demonstrated any interest in job creation activities.”

Dr. Nduom, who has been the most consistent in advocating for the election of MMDCEs, argued that “an MMDCE elected directly by the people like those in New York City, London, Cape Town, etc., will listen to the people in the locality, work to bring businesses to the area and show some friendliness to those who will support development from the private sector.”

According to him, elected MMDCEs will know that if the people are unhappy with them they will be voted out at the end of the term.

He said Prof. Ahwoi reminds him of those who ask how a president's security will be protected when he travels to any locality if he is from the PPP and the MMDCE is from the NPP.

“What happens in London or Washington DC when the President or Prime Minister is from a party different from that of the Mayor? Are we Ghanaians an inferior class of people?” he asked.

The PPP leader could also not fathom why Ghanaians can cast a vote to elect a president, an assembly member and a Member of Parliament but are not considered smart enough to vote to elect an MMDCE?

Dr. Nduom reiterated the need to put development ahead of politics of winning power, stressing that it is clear that the Ghanaian people want the right to elect their MMDCEs.

“We need leaders in power who will respect this desire of the people and give them what they want,” he affirmed.