'We need civil society to fact-check information' - SADA

Mr Charles Abugre, former Chief Executive Officer of Savanah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), has said the country needs a civil society to fact-check and put forward unified values to bridge social capital and make discourse civil.

"We need citizens not partisans, when people become partisans rather than citizens, they are not able to negotiate passionately and solve problems but rather tilt towards political lines," he added.

He said this in Accra at the relaunch of Star Ghana Foundation and public lecture on the topic: "Active Citizenship in a Changing Ghana: Context, Challenges and Opportunities".

Mr Abugre said civic movements and broad-based campaigns are declining, and being replaced by single issue which are technocratic organizations.

He said the increasing informalisation of work comes with the decline in the influence of organised labour, outside of collective wage bargaining.

He said the progressive strengthening of democratic institutions and institutions of the rule of law and the absence of human rights violation and dictatorship had deprived activism of a mobilizing force.

Mr Abugre said active citizenship was anchored by three features - power, imagination, and character.

"Power is never granted, it is claimed. If you don't have a seat at the table, bring a stool or a folding chair or even piece of stone large enough to accommodate your bottom," he said.

He said harnessing, and influencing power for the good requires the right imagination.

"A powerful, transformation imagination is necessary to direct energy to the right causes and to sustain it. Failure of imagination can be very costly, with exponential consequences," he said.

He said political activism has become highly divisive, intolerant and uncivil, assuming an enemy approach, which needed urgent attention.

He called for an endowment fund through an aggressive partnership with development partners including those transitioning out of aid and as well invest in long-term accountability and vibrant civil society.

"We need civil society when political discourse becomes intolerant, when money is made without accountability and when truth no more matters in the exercise of power".

Mr Ibrahim Tanko Amidu, Programme Director, Star Ghana Foundation, said from 2010, the company has contributed to the development of the country by transforming children in school learning, women taking control of their livelihoods and rural communities getting a fairer share of development gains.

He said the transition to foundation was to create a platform for ordinary people, particularly the marginalised in society to become active citizens who demand positive change in their lives and communities.

"As a Ghanaian-led , independent organization, we are an example of Ghana going beyond dependence on aid, supporting locally grown solutions to advance the country's development and contributing to sustainable and inclusive change".

GNA

By Kodjo Adams/Abdulai Mohammed, GNA