CDD Boss wants NRC report implemented

Prof. Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, executive director of the Centre for Democratic Development, has called on the Government to implement the recommendations of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) as a matter of urgency.

He suggested the establishment of an independent non-partisan commission to devise the appropriate modalities and supervise the implementation of the recommendations for reparation.

He was speaking in Accra on Monday at a symposium jointly organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) and the Friedriech Ebert Stiftung on “Reconciling the nation.”

Speaking on the topic: “Reconciliation: comparative perspectives,” Prof. Gyimah-Boadi said the issues involved – fair, sustainable and pro-reconciliation reparations – were very complex and therefore called for sober reflection.

“Ghanaian governments initiating rehabilitation have typically singled out for rehabilitation and resettlement, victims of human rights abuses under regimes with whom they share close political and ideological affinity. For example, Danquah-Busia governments rehabilitate and resettle Danquah-Busia politicians, Nkrumahist government rehabilitate and resettle Nkrumahist politicians, and so on,” he explained.

That tendency, he said, was not good enough adding, “post 1966 informal forms of victim rehabilitation have tended to be characterised by high degrees of selectivity and political partisanship.”

Prof. Gyimah-Boadi commended the NRC for the good work done because it “has helped many Ghanaians to know for the first time the full extent of human rights abuses in our political history.”

Speaking to the paper later, Prof. Gyimah-Boadi said, “The reason for setting up the commission was not to write a book but to make recommendations to be published for us to learn our lesson.”

He said that the publication of the NRC recommendations meant nothing if they were not implemented.