The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), last Friday identified poverty, culture, ignorance and illiteracy, as factors that could impinge on the country’s vision of achieving a strong democratic state.
Consequently, the Commission had started series of public educational campaigns to educate the public to have a fair knowledge of the tenets of democracy.
Such a campaign would enhance and aid the democratic process because it would help the people to fully understand and participate in it.
The Central Regional Director of the NCCE, Mr Charles Nkrumah, made the observation when he launched the 11th Annual Constitution Week Celebration at Abura Batanyaa, in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese (AAK) District of the Central Region.
The celebration, which was under the theme “the state of Ghana’s democracy, 2011, and decentralization”, will be marked with activities such as, the reading of constitutional messages, clean up exercises and durbars, as well as analyzing the state of democracy, corruption, political parties, the media and the security agencies.
Mr Nkrumah said democracy will not thrive if successive governments failed to abide by the constitution or respect the rule of law, and advised that governments should work with the constitution to facilitate a vibrant democracy for the nation.
The Presiding Member (PM) of the AAK District Assembly, Mr Kwabena Takyie-Sam, said the objective of decentralization was to, among others, develop, improve and manage human settlements, as well as promote and support productive activities in the various districts.
He enumerated the benefits of the decentralization process, explaining that it takes governance to the doorstep of the citizenry to offer them the opportunity to be part of the decision-making process, since their welfare and prosperity depended on it.
The PM said that a few months ago, the Vice-President of the Republic launched a full decentralization programme of which human resource centres in selected districts, including AAK, would soon be established and run on pilot bases.
He said the Programme will eventually be extended to all district assemblies.
The District Director of the NCCE, Mr Kwesi Dadzie warned that the law does not respect anyone and called on all citizens irrespective of their status to obey the laws of the land.
All citizens must also be conversant with their rights and responsibilities to avoid trampling on the rights of others, he added.
GNA
