Providing homes for the People - How property-owning democracy was bastardised

March 2009 is ending with agitation over Ga lands and the threat of a similar agitation in the Western Region. In my view all this could have been effectively avoided or neutralised if only the New Patriotic Party was steadfast and more radical in its realisation of the dream of a property-owning democracy.

On April 4, 2007, I wrote an article explaining 'Development in Freedom' - the slogan of the NPP -– the party of proponents of free market and developmentalism like Danquah, Busia and Dombo   That article argues, fundamental to the doctrine of Danquah-Busiaism is the principle that freedom is the primary end as well as the active means to development.

The party"s policy, in the thinking of J B Danquah, "is to liberate the energies of the people for the growth of a property owning democracy in this land, with right to life, freedom and justice, as the principles to which the Government and laws of the land should be dedicated in order specifically to enrich life, property and liberty of each and every citizen.'

President Mills and his Vice say, with tongue in cheek, that 'Ghanaians have changed to move forward in the right direction.'

A violent twist of logic. 'Forward" is actually a direction – one that denotes positive or constructive mobility as opposed to being stabile - a state of motionlessness, static horizontal mobility or backward movement.

You may say it is still early days, however, you may require a superhuman sense of discernment to have anything resembling a remote idea of the direction that the NDC is taking Ghana. That is not to say that the Mills-Mahama team lacks a latent desire for success.

Providing free school uniforms to a 'privileged' few conveniently classified as 'deprived' in a nation where the majority is described as 'poor', is the only new clear policy initiative in tune with the NDC claim of social democracy . 

Worrying to some of us is that Ghana runs the risk of gaining a reputation as a nation where the gap between professed ideologies and practice is taken for granted as wide.

Ideally, in the thinking of the NPP, a primary duty of the state is to guarantee to individuals (who make up society) substantive freedoms to make them active agents of a positive change for prosperity rather than passive recipients of dispensed benefits.

Crucial to this freedom is an inevitable social welfare foundation, which actively ensures the provision of an environment where every individual (particularly from childhood) has the opportunity (in freedom) to gain access (through decent, affordable education, housing and health) to climbing the ladder of self-development, prosperity and security.

Unfortunately, the jury is still out on whether or not the first eight years of NPP rule did anything distinctively and intrinsically profound to significantly promote the realisation of a property-owning democracy, as compared to what was achieved by previous regimes which had clear social leanings, such as the CPP, NRC and SMC.

Apart from bettering the macro-economic environment, the underlining vulnerability of which has been recently exposed, very little was achieved in the area of reforming the housing system, from security of land tenure, through better town planning, to access to decent affordable homes. 

Indeed, it became a campaign joke on the NPP that, besides grand mansions that deepened the perception of only a few getting richer, the disciples of property-owning democracy (NPP) could not boast of a single completed affordable home for the masses in 8 years.

But, how modest was NPP achievement in housing? The 2008 Manifesto captured it thus: The NPP has committed an unprecedented amount of government funds to address the nation's housing shortage with GH¢30 million (¢300 billion) for the construction of affordable homes across the country… Within the conducive business environment, the private sector now provides an average of 40,000 homes a year.

Government under its affordable housing programme is currently constructing a total of 3500 flats at Borteyman and Kpone in the Greater Accra Region (1,500 flats), Asokore-Mampong in the Ashanti Region (1,192 flats), Koforidua in the Eastern Region (400 flats), Tamale in the Northern Region (400 flats). The construction of an additional 1500 affordable housing units will commence in Sekondi, Takoradi, Sunyani, Cape Coast, Wa, Bolgatanga and Ho by 2009.

The Government now has land banks totalling 50,000 acres across the country for housing development by the private sector. It has also instituted a rural housing scheme for cocoa farmers starting in the Western Region

It has also instituted a housing scheme for civil servants with a US$10 million facility placed with the Housing Finance Corporation (HFC).

 For the future, the NPP said, if re-elected for a third term: it would continue with the affordable housing scheme and extend it nationwide.

It would create a special Housing the People Scheme to allow employers to receive tax credits for implementation of housing schemes for their workers. The NPP made a radical promise to provide 50,000 affordable houses every year for the next five years.

Make many of these houses available for rent for those who can't afford to buy; construct at least 13,000 units of decent, affordable housing across the North within the first two years; establish a mortgage culture to provide the loan facilities for more Ghanaians to own their own homes; name every street and number every property within our first term; create a new Department of Infrastructure and Physical Planning to ensure better land use and spatial planning in our cities; and, ensure cleaner streets with the development of 20,000 sanitation (Tankase) inspectors per year for the next five years in partnership with the private sector.  Continued    Source: The Statesman - The Statesman

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