Press Statement: Minority Leader’s Comments On NCCE Unfortunate
June 27, 2012
The FGJ finds comments attributed to the Minority Leader of Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, in relation to the NCCE, very unfortunate. We wish to register our intense disquiet and take exception to his disparaging comments on a Kumasi based FM Station (Fox FM).
The Minority Leader of Ghana's Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu is said to have chided the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) describing it as an appendix of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to information reaching the FGJ, the Minority Leader who was explaining the role of the NCCE in the 2012 elections on 'Hardball', a political show, said that the NPP could not trust the NCCE for a good job in the upcoming elections. He said “We cannot trust the NCCE because they are all members of the NDC.”
Is this impression of the NCCE by the Minority Leader the reason why he and his party did not rise to the defence of the NCCE when it came under attack by the illegitimate Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) for educating the citizens of Ghana on their rights and responsibilities, on 29th April 2011 in Accra to mark the 11th Constitutional Week celebrations?
The FGJ finds it disheartening that a leading Member of Parliament will rather question the loyalty of a constitutional body like the NCCE on a radio program when the right thing to do is to use his privileged position to initiate corrective action.
As an organization which believes in good governance and believes that we will be better served as a people if our institutions are strengthened, we challenge the Minority Leader to initiate the needed actions against the NCCE to back his charge that the NCCE is an appendage of the NDC.
Signed
Dr. Clement A. Apaak
Convener, Forum for Governance and Justice - Ghana
020 011 7620