Former President John Dramani Mahama has stressed the need for the government to make consensus building a key component of its strategies in delivering good governance to the people.
“Consensus building does not diminish a leader” but rather “projects a leader’s strength in carrying along his vision with the people that he leads.”
Former President Mahama said this when he addressed the opening of the 2023 National Development Conference organised by the Church of Pentecost at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region today, July 26, 2023.
The conference, which is on the theme: “Moral vision and national development” brought together key personalities, stakeholders, bodies and institutions in the country to deliberate on critical issues that border on the country’s development.
Among the speakers attending the event are Vice President Dr. Mamoudu Bawumia; Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin; Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo; former President John Agyekum Kufuor; President of Ghana Journalist Association, Albert Kwabena Dwumfour; Former Minister of Women’s Affairs of Zimbabwe, Dr Olivia Nyembezi Muchena and Spokesperson of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu.
Expatiating on his call on the government to build consensus, Mr. Mahama said through consensus building, leaders are able to come up with good ideas that could help to advance the development of the country.
He said during his tenure as President, he held a forum that offered opportunity to Ghanaians to offer ideas on some critical issues.
For him, the Senchi forum really contributed some good ideas that helped to stabilize the country’s economy and other important matters that bordered on the country’s development.
Mr. Mahama believes that when the government also emulates the example of The Church of Pentecost to hold a national forum, it will offer ideas on some key government projects, including the implementation of the free Senior High School programme.
Touching on the theme, the former President expressed the concern that the country was fast losing its moral and ethical codes.
“We are faced with an erosion of our traditional values and Westernisation of our societies and adoption of alien cultures imported from elsewhere,” he noted.
For him, many communities do not care about moral and ethical values and that could be seen in how people whose sources of income are not known are celebrated in the country.
“What happened to our abhorrence for greed and theft”, Mr. Mahama quizzed, saying “why do we celebrate persons, who today are wealthy with dubious sources of income and yet society is not concerned about the person’s source of income.”
He said “ethics have a direct impact on national development”, adding that all societies that “have fallen lost their ethics and moral compass.”
The leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) expressed the hope that “Ghana will continue to maintain its moral compass.”