Harmony at local governance level will accelerate devt – Oduro Osae

Dr Oduro Osae, the Dean of Studies and Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), has called for harmony amongst individuals at the local governance level and unity is the only way for progress, growth and development to materialise at the grassroots level.

“When it comes to local level development, it is not about fighting, it is about joining of effort and unity to bring about accelerated growth and development, I will describe incidents as “disappointing”, it must be handled at its early stages before it becomes uncontrollable which may cause challenges for the country,” he cautioned.

Ghanaians went to the polls on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, to elect their assembly and unit committee members except for Ekumfi Immuna Electoral Area where threats by residents forced the Electoral Commission (EC) to postpone their election indefinitely and during the election,  one person was stabbed at Salaga in the Savannah Region and series of violence recorded in some parts of the country.

Analysing the outcome of the just ended district level election, Dr Osae indicated that “it starts on small scale is not managed, then it begins to grow, we are also going into the general election next year, if we are not able to curb them, it may affect presidential and parliamentary elections next year.

“Everyone has role to play in growing their various electoral areas, must not sort to violence as solutions, local government system is unit that brings development to the citizenry, both winners and losers need to come together in order to bring about growth and development.

“Rule of law is key, is way to go, let us try to resolve all our issues using the law in diplomatic and democratic way, it is not good to be burning tyres, take entrenched positions, take the law into your own hands, whether you lose or win, you have a role to play in society,” Dr Osae advised.

Commenting on the low turnout of the election, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, the Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission attributed it to ignorance and observed that the chunk of the citizenry do not know the importance and roles of district level governance and disregard it. -myjoyonline.com