Professor Stephen Adei, the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), has postulated that the manifestos of various political parties seeking to govern the country should be in line with the strategic national development plan, which must serve as a driving force and the basis for all their policies and programmes.
“Every political party seeking the democratic mandate to rule Ghana should set its policies, programmes and manifestos on the premise of the national development plan but despite the constitutional imperative, the governance of successive administrations has been at variance with it,” Prof. Adei stressed.
The NDPC is a body created by Article 86 of the 1992 Constitution which has the mandate to advise any president on development planning policies, programmes and strategies and ensure that strategised plans are effectively and efficiently carried out.
Prof. Adei, the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), noted that the commission had the responsibility to draw both short and long-term development plans and appropriately must have between five to 40-year plan that the country ought to be stern to achieve.
“In actual sense, the political parties’ manifestos must indicate what it can do out of the national plan drawn by NDPC and this can inform the citizenry who they want to vote to add to the country’s development, most appropriately, the plan must drive the manifesto, without ruling out the concept of political parties owning their own manifestos, with the national development plan being a reference point.
“For instance, the current government’s Free Senior High School (SHS) programme is largely accepted by the country and, will be difficult for any successive government to stop it, the commission should be able to sell its policies to the citizenry such that no government can go contrary to them,” Prof. Adei cautioned. -classfmonline.com
