Politics

Politicians must not drive change in devt agenda but citizenry – Kathleen Addy

Kathleen Addy, a Deputy Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has postulated that the needed change for the development agenda of the nation must be led by the citizenry and not politicians.

She recounted that history was replete with examples of how the citizenry came together to form and build nations, which was motivated by the many underdeveloped sectors of the Ghanaian economy despite flowery promises from political leaders to fix them when elected.

Without discounting the importance of political leadership, Ms Addy bemoaned the situation where political leaders always acted in ways that got them rewarded from the citizenry, saying, “I think the citizenry can lead change, they can get leaders to do what they wanted since  politicians are rational, they give more of the behaviours that are rewarded.”

Citing the Office of the Member of Parliament to buttress her assertion, she indicated that “the citizenry must get to a point where what is important to them, for instance roads, healthcare, education among others becomes the criteria that a potential Member of Parliament satisfied before earning a vote.

“The lack of development and other failings of political leadership is simply a question of the citizenry electing leaders based on factors that do not encourage development, but all is not lost since the anomaly can be rectified, if the citizenry are educated and sensitised to know that politicians will always do what gets rewarded by them,” Ms Addy stated. -myjoyonline.com

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