Appointment of ministers and heads of government institutions and agencies in time past has been largely, if not completely, dominated by party faithful. This, according to some governance experts, breeds excessive corruption which leads to under development.
It is against this backdrop that Bright Kwesi Asempa, host of Yen Nsem Pa, Onua FM Morning Show, is advocating a shift from what he called “stone age” practice of appointing only party apparatchiks to positions. He described the practice as a try and error which, he said, is a threat to the forward march of the country’s development.
“This practice of giving appointment to only party people is retarding our progress as a country. Can’t we look outside our party for competent people, must it be at all cost our party people. We should appoint competent people to positions; both past and present governments are guilty of this. If we want to grow as a nation let us do away with this excessive nepotism and cronyism. We have a lot of brains and qualified people in other parties and also those who are doing their private business. Can’t we look elsewhere apart from our party?”
Bright Kwesi Asempa noted that the cause of the country’s snail pace development can be traced to appointing incompetent people to sensitive positions in government.
He said one cannot help than to blame the perennial problem of foot soldiers seizing and closing down government institutions with bravado and impudence on that practice. He added, “If people are appointed not based on their party affiliation, why will anyone go to attack or close down anything when there is a change of government, it will not happen.”
He said the temptations of corruption are high when government appointees are party faithful. “You will have all these party foot soldiers trooping to that appointee’s office with one need or another, putting pressure on that appointee and if they cannot withstand the pressure, they fall for temptations of corruption,” the host who is affectionately called Asempa said with disappointed.
“I am angry at this, my blood pressure rises anytime government changes power and you see all appointments going to party people, and we are happy. When they mess up then we come back to defend them. Do we care about this country or just ourselves and party, that is all.”
Asempa advised that it is time the country and its leaders – present and future – ensured that they put into practice the cliché of ‘all inclusive government’ as that will propel the progress of the country.
“If we want to achieve the objective of a better and prosperous Ghana we need to manifest the rhetoric of all inclusive government,” he stressed.
By Bright Dzakah |OnuaFM|3news.com|Ghana