NCCE must take up duties effectively — Dan Lartey

THE leader and founder of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr Dan Lartey, has urged the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to sit up and take up its constitutional duties effectively in order to not allow non-governmental institutions to take the shine out of it.
He said it was wrong for the NCCE to wait till elections are due before it was seen in flashes performing certain duties which were usually seen as “camouflage campaign for the party in power”.
He called the NCCE to start organising inter-political parties’ debates and other activities that would generate national awareness and whip up interest in the electorate, adding that these activities would allow the electorate to make informed choices when it came to voting.
He also called on the government to adequately resource the Commission to enable it to perform its constitutionally mandated duties.
In a statement to the Daily Graphic in which he raised other topical issues, Mr Lartey mentioned specifically the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), which he described as “segregationist and apartheid organisation” and urged the NCCE not to allow such organisations to usurp its duties.
Making reference to the 2008 Presidential Debate organised by the IEA, which did not include the smaller political parties such as the GCPP, the veteran politician said “the party does not see the reason why the NCCE allowed a segregationist and apartheid organisation such as the IEA to usurp the organisation of the Presidential Debate of the recent election, which is directly under its purview”.
Under the functions of the NCCE, Article 233 (d) of the 1992 Constitution states that it is “to formulate, implement and oversee programmes intended to inculcate in the citizens of Ghana awareness of their civic responsibilities and appreciation of their rights and obligations as free people”.
Mr Lartey said most often some public institutions hid their inefficiency behind financial constraints and pointed out that if the IEA was able to source funds to organise such a national programme, the NCCE could do better.
He observed that if there was the will from individuals and corporate bodies to support the IEA in such an enterprise, then it clearly showed that despite its financial constraints, NCCE could equally have attracted donors and sponsors if it had not been dormant.
“The party wishes to call on the NCCE to sit up. The party would like to see the NCCE start organising inter-political parties’ debate and other activities that will generate national political awareness and whip up interest in the electorate,” he stressed.