Don't politicise accountability

A governance analyst, Mr Emmanuel Bombande, has cau­tioned against the politicization of the processes of holding public officials accountable for their stewardship.

While endorsing the desire of Ghanaians in ensuring accountability of former government officials, he advised against actions that result­ed in a vicious cycle of partisan political wran­gling each time a change in government ­occurred.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mr Bombande said events during the elec­tions, which had nearly pushed the country to the brink of violence, showed that care should be exercised by Ghanaians.

Also needed, he added, was the commitment by Ghanaians for constitutional reforms on the grey areas of transitions, as well as the collective will of political actors in the country to ensure that processes of accountability were not turned into other processes that would be perceived as "witch-hunting."

"Ghana can only progress if systems of state function and all are equal under the rule of law and held accountable whether one is a minister or not," Mr Bombande said.

"But how you do that, so that it is not seen as political witch-hunting, or a process of try­ing to lord it over the other becomes impor­tant?" he asked.

Although conceding that the brouhaha over getting former government officials account­able were all part of the transitional challenges the country was facing, he said that demanded the desire by all to endeavour to rise to a new level of governance and development.

Meanwhile, West Africa Network for Peace building as the leading civil society coordinator of ECOWARN, that is, the ECOWAS Early Warning Mechanism (ECOWARN) on conflicts, is involved with other state agencies on the issue, of conflict and development through some 92 indicators developed through the ECOWARN programme by which monitoring of all countries in the sub-region is dope on a daily basis on the likelihood of the escalation of violence or conflicts.

WANEP has focal persons in all the coun­tries of the sub-region collecting empirical data for conflict management.

According to Mr Bombande, the indicators and information gathered for Ghana formed the basis of ongoing conversations with the government on national issues likely to bring about conflict, as well as community issues like the Bawku issue.

He said policy briefs on peace, conflict management and highlighting areas where more effort was needed, were ongoing areas of dialogue between civil society organizations and the government.