Ho, Nov. 8, GNA - Partisan tendencies by vociferous interest groups, which seek to politicise every national endeavour, the timidity and reluctance of the majority of the body politic to seek political participation beyond elections constitute formidable weaknesses in democratic governance and development in Ghana.

Dr Joe Abbey, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) and Reverend Dr. Abraham Akrong, Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, Legon, made these observations in answer to questions at the just ended two-day Public Forum for Churches in Ho by the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and CEPA.

The Forum, which was sponsored by the UNDP through the National Governance Programme, afforded the participants the opportunity to come to terms with the role of Churches in demanding accountability and participation from the political authorities, especially at the local government level.

The focus was on the performance of the 2003 national budget, the enhanced HIPC Initiative and poverty reduction.

Dr Abbey said issues of national interest such as the economy, ought to be driven by a genuine commitment by all to ensure a collective national enrichment and the abandonment of partisan positions on issues. He said pragmatism must be the approach in the debate and management of the economy as it does not help to denigrate people who have to take difficult decisions, proffer ideas and especially with the country's development partners.

"Insulting people that they are exploiting us is not good enough, you don't expect to be given assistance unconditionally", Dr Abbey said. He said opting for the HIPC initiative for instance does not constitute a national disgrace but a pragmatic step in coming to terms with realities especially, as the Initiative was not tailor-made for Ghana. The concern of all should rather be how to ensure that the best results were derived from the Initiative to propel the economy into a higher gear.

He said in times such as the one the country found, itself the churches must make their voices heard unequivocally and be resolute in their involvement in the governance of the country.

Dr Abbey said Churches as a unit needed to team up with others outside the religious domain to present a solid non-partisan front that would exert positive influences in the daily process of governance for the consolidation of democratic culture and development.

Rev. Dr Akrong asserted that the Church could not divorce itself from the reality of its political nature, what it should not do is to assume a partisan posture.

He said by its position the church has the responsibility to educate their members, who form the majority of the population, on issues of governance and development and engender in them the appetite for active democratic participation based on objectivity and knowledge.

Rev. Dr Akrong said being interested in matters of politics and governance does not necessarily entail partisanship and that the church stood in a unique position to be a credible non-partisan political force capable of exerting positive influences on the process of governance in the country.

He said for as long as the majority of the citizenry relegated its political participation to elections only, the country's democracy would not attain the robustness it requires and accountability in governance would remain a pipe dream.

"Politicians benefit from your reluctance to participate and would be happy that things remained so", he said.

He therefore, urged the defunct Local Council of Churches in Ho to reorganise and be a strong force to propel the wheel of development, accountability in local government administration and poverty reduction in the Ho District as their Christian duty.

The Ho District Chief Executive, Mr Mawutor Goh acknowledged that the Churches are reliable forums for reaching the majority of the populace with government policies and programmes if a strong working partnership is forged between the district Assemblies and local Churches in all spheres of local governance.

He said the Ho District Assembly has therefore, fashioned out a scheme of regular stakeholders meetings to begin next week as a way of expanding opportunities for groups such as the Churches to make inputs into the work of the Assembly.

He hoped the local Churches like the Chiefs would begin to get closer to the Assembly for regular consultations on the development and governance of the district. 08 Nov.03