Daasebre Professor Emeritus Oti Boateng, paramount chief of the New Juaben traditional area
The paramount chief of the New Juaben traditional area, Daasebre Professor Emeritus Oti Boateng, has said the current shift in the country’s centralised governance architecture towards a more functional community involvement in decision-making, is the best for Ghana.
According to him, every nation was rooted in its community and there was the need for the adoption of a more development-oriented model that ensured local level participation in governance.
A statement made available to the Ghana News Agency said Daasebre Prof. Oti Boateng, made the call at the media launch of his development book series held in Accra.
He said the top-to-down approach of governance, where decisions came from the seat of government, had been the cause of abuse, corruption and inefficiency in governance.
Daasebre Oti Boateng pointed out that the people in the communities knew their developmental needs and it was important for them to be given the liberty to decide their own development agenda, without any external interference.
The choice of development projects that the people need must come from the people themselves, “because no one can tell me what I need than myself”, he said.
Daasebre Oti Boateng, used the occasion to unveil his award winning ‘Root-Based Model”, authored with the aim of promoting a new development model for Ghana, Africa and regions of growing economies.
“The innovative development model was in response to the demands of contemporary global challenges, including; the reduction of poverty and inequality”, he stated.
Mr Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, a Development Expert, who was the guest speaker, called for the adoption of a home - grown development model as a pragmatic strategy to promote effective development in Africa.
He said the development industry was at the cross-roads and the existing order with all the conventional streams of economic and alternative development models were a huge failure, particularly in Africa and other developing world.
Mr Azongo said the economic model that was practised over the years was not inclusive enough to address the socio-economic and development challenges, resulting in widespread poverty and inequalities among the people.
He consequently called for the adoption and promotion of the Ghanaian consensus to incubate an African- based model for Africa, to help speed up development on the continent.
