August 3, 2013

Member of Parliament for Ketu South, Fifi Kwetey, says the recurrent rejection of President Mahama’s Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive (MMDCE) nominations is due to greed among party activists.

He suspects the agitations have increased because “our politics is becoming increasingly too focused on what it is I can get as opposed to what it is I can do to bring change…and transformation”.

President Mahama’s MMDCE nominations have been met with several rejections over the past weeks.

Recently, irate youth in Nkwanta North district in the Volta Region vandalised properties in protest against the re-nomination of Mr Paul Levin Gyato as District Chief Executive.

But speaking on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji news analysis programme, Mr Kwetey observed MMDCEs are now perceived as custodians of assets instead of initiators of development – saying that is bad for the country’s development.

The protestations against the MMDCE nominees, according to him, “show also that the whole local government structure has to be looked at again properly”.

He said the “winner takes all” phenomenon existing at the national governance level is also happening, albeit, on a smaller scale at the local governance.

He stressed that phenomenon has also heightened tensions among different interest groups among the party.

He condemned the recent violent protests against the president’s nominations and re-nominations and proposed dialogue between interest groups within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the party leadership.

Myjoyonline.com