Decentralisation: the key to real, local, people power

My grandmother always did tell me that it was rude to address people without greeting and so before I start my kasa tenten, mere kyea mo nyinaa.

Now … On Friday 10 November, a fundraising drive championed by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Yɛ Wura himself, tagged Heal Komfo Anokye, was launched on the grounds of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi. The aim of the campaign is in the name – to rehabilitate the inpatient wards of the major teaching hospital, which are 70 years old.

Social media was awash with clips of Asante personalities, ranging from successful entrepreneurs to popular entertainers, making various pledges to the project in cash and kind. It was, to say the least, a beautiful sight – an event which managed to blend the might and influence of traditional authority, the sanctity and importance of our chieftaincy systems and the civic duty and care for community ingrained in so many Ghanaians.

It is quite unfortunate that Ghanaian citizens are having to dip into their pockets, too often searched in recent times, to help rehabilitate a vital government teaching hospital that serves a significant proportion of the population, even as we brace ourselves to remain upright in the stiff economic headwinds lashing our nation.

It goes without saying that it is the responsibility of the government to use the taxes that are squeezed out of us at every turn at least to ensure that the vitals of a civilised society are in working order.

And yes, we do understand that the government is in a financial crunch. But the point remains that KATH (and many other of our hospitals) needn’t deteriorate so badly before we start running around like headless chickens, figuring out how to salvage the rot. Systems, people, systems!

Home, sweet home

Anyway, I digress … The display on Friday proved the age-old observation that, apart from the ineffectiveness of central government, people care deeply for their home communities and the progress of their kith and kin, and will not stand by and watch their lives descend into the abyss.

You will not see any resident of my native Sampa enthusiastically join a protest to get the government to rehabilitate the Tema Motorway, no matter how many times he hears about its economic importance – because, to put it quite simply, it doesn’t “touch” him directly.

You will see him join in energetically, however, if there is a demonstration calling for rehabilitation of the pothole-riddled Drobo-Sampa road, which affects the movement of his cashew harvest. Observe also how many upper-middle-class and wealthy citizens make it a priority, even though most of them make a living in the capital, to do their philanthropy in their home towns. As the saying goes, “Efie ne efie.”

The natural conclusion to draw from observing such impulses, especially in a country such as ours, which is made up of a multitude of ethnic groups, is that our governance model must be as decentralised as possible. Unfortunately, attempts to make this a reality have all resulted in somewhat cosmetic results.

In 1988, for instance, Ghana launched “a new decentralisation policy framework that focused on grass-roots citizens’ participation” to enable the effective and efficient delivery of services. The policy did indeed bring the government closer to the people in form, but in substance, many services and sources of revenue remained centralised, rendering metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) toothless.

In a similar way, an attempt in the early years of the first Akufo-Addo government to inject vitality into the system by introducing partisan elections for metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) fell apart, following disagreements between the government and the main opposition on the extent to which political parties should take part in local governance.

Prodding in the right direction

All this long kasa kasa is to illustrate that we have been denied the benefits of a governance system in tune with our traits as a people. However, this writer believes that, as ordinary citizens continue to witness the inefficiency and incapacity of central government and start dipping their hands into their pockets to support one initiative after the other, questions will continue to pop up.

Why can’t the government take care of this? So, the local assembly can’t keep up with maintaining our basic amenities? What exactly are our levies doing? Civic activism is beautiful, it is true, but we all have a limit and we are bound to hit it at some point. A people tired of the incapacity of central government will drift, with some prodding, towards supporting a more active form of local governance that they can “touch and feel” more directly.

Wouldn’t it be lovely for us to be able to go to the polls and vote for a district/municipal chief executive/“mayor” and local assemblyman (on the basis of their policy planks) and proceed to observe keenly what they do in office? Wouldn’t it be lovely for you to be able to walk directly to your assemblyman’s house/office to tell him that your street surface needs asphalting and then harangue him/her until it is done, because – well, you live in the same neighbourhood?

Wouldn’t it be so satisfying to ask the local assembly what it is doing to create a more vibrant economy and jobs because the neighbouring district has shot ahead of us koraa with its agribusiness incubator programme?

Would it not be lovely finally to be able to understand fully the components of a government budget and to argue for/against certain parts because it pertains solely to your own community and addresses your immediate needs and worries?

With a single stroke, we might perhaps sink the typical “the government can only do so much” argument that our public servants have used all these years as a shield to abdicate from ownership of so many responsibilities of their positions.

Wind of change

Decentralisation – full decentralisation – of government functions will not only bring government closer to ordinary citizens but unleash the active citizenship hidden in everyone.

People would pay more attention to local politics and thus be more likely to take the steps necessary to hold local government officials accountable.

We would be able to trust the natural competitiveness among districts to make citizens demand ever more progress from their elected local government officials.

We would also be able to trust this instinct to encourage people to be more amenable to charitable appeals to help along projects in a locality (for instance, a hospital or community centre).

A combination of these forces is bound to generate some sustainable growth economically and socially across all districts in the country. Granted: decentralisation is by no means the only solution to our myriad problems, but it certainly can make a dent if we are serious about it.

What we need to do is spread the gospel of decentralisation far and wide. In trotros, in our workplaces, in our churches and mosques – spread it far and wide. We need to let everyone know about the joys of local government and, more importantly, we must reinforce the point that it will take the never-ending participation of an active citizenry to keep it running smoothly.

To borrow the words of Gabon’s ousted strongman Ali Bongo, we need to start “making noise” and bring decentralisation back to the top of the national agenda. We must harass our MPs about it, ask our presidential candidates what they intend to do about it, make social media posts about it …

The possibilities are endless.

This is no unpopular cause – Afrobarometer tells us that “more than two-thirds (69%) of Ghanaians ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ that metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives … should be elected by voters in the local authority area”. We need to go out and spread the gospel with vim!

Back to the future?

My mouth is going dry from all this talking and a cold glass of the finest bubra awaits me at KS’s Spot.

So, let me end here, on a slightly humorous note. History buffs would be amused to see that we have managed to return to the same conclusion that the National Liberation Movement (NLM) reached in the Gold Coast in the early 1950s – that the country is best run under a federal system, or, at best, a system akin to it.

This was a proposition that was heavily opposed by the socialist, centralisation-obsessed Convention People’s Party (CPP). Life does run in cycles, doesn’t it?

Barima Peprah-Agyemang is an alumnus of Prempeh College and Ashesi University. He lives in and makes a living in the Bono Region of Ghana

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