The Blended Representation Principle (BRP) in the Context of Ghana: Ten Major Ways for Improving Governance in a Community Society

The Blended Representation Principle (BRP) has been propounded in a recent publication as an optimist pathway to addressing leadership and governance challenges in Africa stemming from the principles of representation, transparency, accountability, and participation (RTAP) – universal principles pivotal to the practice of democracy anywhere in the world. BRP is technically defined as a fusion of traditional African and Western democratic ideals of representation, transparency, accountability, and participation for organizing the designs and shape of statehood according to needs, realities, and aspirations of target communities

Below are ten major ways BRP can improve governance in the context of Ghana.

1. Key Message and Envisioned Representation Formula

In practice, BRP is sharing power between leaders selected based on Western democratic ideals; (elections and multiparty arrangements); and leaders selected based on traditional African norms and conventions. The former will be responsible for National Affairs; and the later responsible for Local Government affairs.

At the National level, communities will select representatives using multiparty mechanisms. And once selected, representatives represent entire communities, and not only those who voted for the person or the party who presented the nominee. In this case, the primacy of the community will supersede the primacy of political parties. At the lower level, the District Assemblies of communities constituting constituencies will be composed of 100 percent corresponding traditional chiefs - male and females. They will select among themselves the Executive Officers and Presiding Members based on a gendered caveat that if a female Chief is selected as the Executive Officer, then the Presiding Member is automatically a male counterpart. They will respectively be responsible for the administration and the assemblies of the district for a period of tenure prescribed by the constitution. In this case, representation at the local level will be communal while representation at the national level will be multiparty provisions. Similar arrangements and or more suited formula will be used to select the President, members of the regional ruling councils and the metropolitan assemblies.

2. Rationale is commonsensical and righting resource accumulation modalities in the global village which militate against transformative development

Reasons for the BRP proposition are several. (a) Realistically, Ghana comprises of structurally-patterned Western cities and townships, and remnants of a large swath of traditional African community societies where primordial loyalties prevail dominantly with quite different psychosocial composition of the people and where the institution of chieftaincy is the premiere leadership institutional choice for eking out living and related existence purposes. Therefore, the political organizational framework would reflect such social characteristics (b) Six decades and more of imitations and wholesale replication of institutional practices from outside as engine of transformation has not provided the desired democracy dividends/results; and Accra has remained a caricature of London or Washington. (c) the institution. of chieftaincy has not withered away but constitute the main leadership institutions capable of penetrating the grassroots and mobilizing the communities around collective efforts. (d) resource accumulation modalities within the global village continue an unsustainable pattern while rendering local community leadership weakened and aloof without the authoritative capacity to prevent the cracks from widening and deepening. (e) As a result, Ghana is unable to build resilient and robust institutions of governance capable of managing public resources effectively with one foot in the global economy, and the other in subsistence. (f) there is thus an urgent need to reconstruct this resource accumulation modality and the entire narrative of the country’s participation and relations within the global village and pave way for peaceful coexistence, stability, security, and transformative development.

3. BRP brings a sharper focus on the principles of representation, transparency, accountability, and participation (RYAP) in designing and shaping statehood structures according to needs. realities and aspirations of Target Communities

With BRP-laden ruling regime, there will be increased voluntary public participation in politics, guarantee of transparency and accountability in the use and management of public resources, and ultimately an increase in public confidence in leaders. Actions to ensure voluntary public participation and guarantee of transparency and accountability for public resources will be enabled by a blend of traditional and Western channels.

The content of Oath of Allegiance and Commitment of public offices will be crafted with behavior- shaping and regulating traditional principles of the respective communities, and Western expectational requirements in the operations of statehood as engine of transformation. A list of traditional behavior-shaping mechanisms to draw from will include: the basic belief and value system of not separating humans from nature; resource ownership based on past, present and future generations; and present inhabitants holding community resources in trust for the future and unborn generations while meeting their current needs. These value mechanisms of the communities will constitute one part element of the content of oaths of public office. The other part will be drawn from Western principles requirements of statehood crafts including: the state of the union address; budget presentations, revenue generation, taxation, and obligations arrangements, related parliamentary and judiciary provisions, watchdog agencies annual reports.

4. Instant Benefits of BRP-Inspired Management of Public Resources

Benefits will accrue directly to the communities as they utilize familiar knowledge of engagement rules, easily understandable language of governance transactions, relative access and influence to leadership at the local level to ensure horizontal transparency and accountability for the use of public resources. This arrangement will lead to strengthening of local institutions which in turn will translate into collective pressure and sphere of influence for shaping behavior, attitudes, and mindsets of national public office holders to ensure vertical transparency and accountability.

Decentralization will become more meaningful in practice and will cease to be an extension of central interests at the lower level. Local government officials will no longer act and serve as poodles at the behest of national officials. Local government will no longer be the weakest link between national-local governance partnership nexus for managing public resources. Ghana will have an autonomous local governance system closer to the people, imbued with respect, trust and loyalty capable of penetrating the grassroots and mobilizing the communities around a common vision and collective endeavor for transformative development. Participation in politics will no longer be based on rented, bussed crowd, or incentivized monetarily. There will be vigorous sense of belongingness expressed in the overall governance operational procedures to enable the emergence of enthused political culture beyond singing and chanting meaningless lyrics and recitations.

5. Alternative Option to BRP is ongoing Organized Chaos and Normalized Abnormalities

The phenomenon of organized chaos is widespread and covers all facet of existence in the country. Politically, elections are organized periodically and regardless whether the choices are based on deceit, sloganeering, and empty promises, all is well and no need for any redress until the mandatory term is expired. The invisible hand of the omnipotent Executive continues to lurk in the shadows of parliamentary behaviors or judicial appointments. Enforcement of the law is rigorously depending on whose ox in society is gored.

Economically the narrative has been basically the same ever since - jobless growth and suffocating debt. Socially, schools continue to churn out graduates of susceptible problem-solving skills, and half-baked literates; the schools are depleted of appropriate teaching and learning materials; and inculcating values of intergenerational responsibility and respect for the commons have been thrown into the dustbin. The youth continue to be idle, vulnerable and roam the streets; frustrated with the older generations for dereliction of responsibilities whether real or imaginary; and will like to leave the shores of the country for greener pastures elsewhere and never return. The examples go on and on.

6. BRP will trigger necessary Constitutional Amendments and Enactments and Capacity Enhancement for Strengthening and Reorienting the Institution of Chieftaincy

The BRP proposal will trigger the need to undertake urgent constitutional amendments and enactments as well as review of the local government acts and statutes. Also, the proposal calls for design and deployment of a comprehensive capacity enhancement learning program aimed at strengthening and reorienting the institution of chieftaincy to assume the envisaged new roles and responsibilities. This program will also entail targeted political education, outreach, and sensitization to ensure that the head (educated elites) and the body (masses) are in sync and sing from the same hymnal. All these varied interventions because the country is too blessed to be chasing the wind.

7. Emphatic Concentration on Kitchen Table Policy Issues and choices

BRP service delivery provisions agenda will include: (a) health (blend of orthodox and plant medicine; (b) Education (ensuring adequate infrastructure -learning and teaching materials, inculcating of moral values and generational responsibilities) (c) agriculture -(seed to plate agriculture as a strategy for transforming subsistence agriculture within the corresponding value chain into profitable and attractive business ventures capable of feeding the nation); (d) labor (particularly targeting digital sills acquisition, computer programming and coding to build the future workforce for jobs anywhere in the global community); (e) technology for communication, construction and conservation; (f) housing and household equipment.

8. The values and principles for driving BRP are embedded in Tran- Serve Leadership.

‘Tran-Serve’ is coined from the words: transformation and servant. Servant leadership focuses on fulfilling needs while Transformation Leadership sees fulfilling needs as a prerequisite for manifesting the blessings of success for everyone in a society. Tran-Serve Leadership is not limited to only those at the top but anyone whose position, power or authority is derived from the public purse can strive to be a Tran-Serve Leader. This category of leadership focuses on solutions, builds communities, uplifts voices, and mobilizes around a common vision and promotes collective endeavors. The liberation struggle version of Nkrumah is a classical example of a Tran-Serve leader.

9. BRP provides step-by- step guidance for implantation of idea

The critical task in the implantation of the BRP idea in society is to inculcate in the psyche of the Ghanaian and the international community that a practical solution strategy for tackling present-day leadership and governance challenges lies in a blend of so-called formal and informal institutions.

BRP will not occur by chance. Its champions must be proactively nurtured and induced; and the underlying values of Tran-Serve leadership be acquired through deliberate learning, imbibed, and practiced across all segments of society.

The foremost action is to establish a National Task Force for Operationalization (NATFO) to oversee and supervise the entire implementation efforts.

Second is to establish Communities of Learning and Practice (CLP) as an instrument for building and inducing the Champions of BRP. CLPs will be established voluntarily in villages, townships, workplaces, schools, churches, and related community social organizations.

NATFO will prepare and release National Command Papers outlining the critical steps and timelines including the operations of CLPs as guidance for operationalizing BRP.

NATFO will commission extensive all level public education, outreach and sensitization crusade, and design elements of a Comprehensive Capacity Enhancement Program for strengthening and orienting the Institution of Chieftaincy to assume the expected roles and responsibilities.

NATFO will identify the likely implementation risks and mitigation measures. The task force will support the Nation to embark on building an extensive partnerships program for resource mobilization – technical, financial, and social for implementation. Above all, the NATFO will have in place a robust, results tracking framework for monitoring and evaluation purposes. All these measures should not take Ghana more than 3 years to prepare and implement the BRP across the nation.

10. BRP requires a Revolution of the Mind

A revolution of the mind is about knowledge and ideas for changing mindsets, behaviors, attitudes for politics of words, and not swords. It calls on the intellectuals of the country to generate evidence-based research to deepen an understanding of the culturally-based knowledge systems of the communities and mobilize as a generational responsibility for deep embrace, acceptance, and adoption to improve the quality of life in the communities of heritage within the global community of nations.

By
Dr. Kofi Vincent Anani
December15, 2023
For details, see, Anani, Leadership in Independent Africa; Six Decades On; The Blended Representation Principle as a Cause for Afro-Optimism: (London: Zed Books, 2024). The author is a Managing Partner at the A&A Network – a Think – and -Do-Tank dedicated to utilizing blended knowledge for transformative development in Africa ( www.anani-afelenetwork.org ). The author can be reached at [email protected] .