The Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Professor Stephen Adei, has said the manifestos of the various political parties that seek to govern the country should have a common denominator – a strategic national development plan – which must serve as a driving force and the basis for all their programmes and policies.

The NDPC is a body created by Articles 86 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. It has the mandate to advise any president on development planning policy and strategy. The Commission also ensures that strategised plans are effectively carried out.

Despite this Constitutional imperative, the governance of successive administrations has been at variance with it.

Ghana’s late President, Prof John Fifi Atta Mills, proposed a 40-year development plan (2018 – 2057) which was put together by the Prof Kwesi Botchwey-led NDPC and continued by his successor Dr Nii Moi Thompson while the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power.

However, the Senior Minister in the current Akufo-Addo government, Mr Yaw Osafa-Maafo, has repetitively argued that Ghana does not need such a long-term plan.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the National Policy Summit organised by the Ministry of Information and the Business and Financial Times in May 2017, the former Finance Minister said: “My views on it [the forty-year development plan] differ. Remember at my vetting I said that we can’t go beyond ten years because of technology and other factors, and, therefore, there must be a limit on how much you can forecast so that you can forecast accurately. We didn’t indicate in our budget or manifesto and we are not bound by it. This thing should come from our cabinet and we haven’t said anything like that yet. I don’t even think that the planning committee has even finalized the plan yet,” Mr Osafo-Maafo said.

Speaking on the subject in an interview with CTV (a subsidiary of the Class Media Group), the former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) noted that the Commission has the responsibility to draw both-short and long-term development plans.

“Appropriately, the Commission must have between five to 40-year plan that the country ought to be stern to achieve…,” he said.

The former lecturer at Ashesi University believes every political party seeking the democratic mandate to rule Ghana should set its policies and manifestos on the premise of the national development plan.

“In actual sense, the political parties’ manifestos must indicate what it could do out of the national plan drawn by NDPC and this can inform the people who they want to vote to add to the country’s development; most appropriately, the plan must drive the manifesto,” Prof Adei stressed.

Without ruling out the concept of political parties owning their own manifestos, Prof Adei stressed: “The national development plan must be a reference point”.

For instance, he said the current government’s Free Senior High School (SHS) programme is largely accepted by the country and, so, will be difficult for any successive government to stop it.

Prof Adei believes the NDPC should be able to sell its policies to Ghanaians such that no government can go contrary to them.