POLITICAL PLURALISM VITAL FOR DEV — NYAMEKYE-MARFO (PAGE 14 , AUGUST 3, 2010)

THE Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, has observed that political pluralism is the only sure way that can ensure the effective development of the country.
He noted that under such a system, people from the various political divide had the right to freely express their opinion on every subject matter that came up for discussion and make suggestions that were geared towards the progress of the country.
The Regional Minister, however, pointed out that some unscrupulous politicians had taken undue advantage of the current political dispensation where free speech was guaranteed to verbally attack their political opponents and malign them without any evidence.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo, for instance, indicated that certain political activists, notably the up and coming young ones, who profess to be political analysts and social commentators, move from one radio station to the other to hurl insults at their opponents in the name of freedom of speech instead of contributing meaningfully to the actual topic under discussion.
The Regional Minister made the observation at Seketia in the Jaman South District when he addressed a meeting with the chief and people of the area.
He also addressed similar meetings with a number of traditional authorities he visited in the Tain, Jaman North and Jaman South Districts, as part of his working visit to the respective areas to acquaint himself with the development projects that were either completed or were ongoing in those districts.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo, who was accompanied by officials of the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) and some regional executive members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, said it was sad and pathetic to hear young people openly engaged in abusive language on some FM radio stations across the country and in the print media.
He indicated that what was more worrisome, in most of the cases, was the fact that the hosts of some of the programmes did not seem to care about the gross indiscipline exhibited by their insulting panellists and rather allowed them to do their own thing, adding that some other persons also exhibited the same character during phone-in segments of political discussions.
The Regional Minister emphasised that presenting constructive criticisms was the best and surest way to move the country forward rather than resorting to making libellous and scandalous statements about people, especially those in official positions and other political big wigs.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo, therefore, appealed to the chiefs and other opinion leaders in the various communities to impress upon the youth to show a high sense of respect to the elderly, who had in diverse ways contributed their quota towards the level of the current development of the country.
He urged Ghanaians to exercise patience for the government to proceed with its ‘‘Better Ghana’’ agenda which the NDC had promised the people, admitting, however, that governance was not an easy enterprise and, more significantly, when the government had inherited a rather difficult economy.