MMDCE nomination headaches: Time for election

Over the past week or so, there have been some loud, adverse reactions within the NDC concerning the nomination by President Mahama of various persons as Metropolitan, Municipal & District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).  

Local rejections

Essentially, elements in the local party have rejected, for various reasons, the president’s nominees, insisting they can only work with particular individuals who were not nominated.

Reports from Talensi, Atiwa East, Kwadaso, Kumawu, Atwima Nwabiagya and Asante Mampong, indicate such rejections, with vandalisation of party offices taking place in some instances.

Usually, the argument has been that the nominee did not work as hard for electoral victory as the candidate the activists support.

Out of all these rejections, perhaps the one that stood out as rather curious, and potentially dangerous, was that of Asante Mampong, where some non-natives insisted loudly on TV that they would resist the nomination of an Asante person as Municipal Chief Executive, as the President had done, insisting instead on the nomination of a non-native.

This was curious, and rather unsettling, to put it mildly, because it has been the usual practice for Presidents to appoint natives of the various jurisdictions to MMDCE positions, given the direct grassroots nature of these positions and consideration of local sensibilities.

The Mampong situation has led to some disquiet among those who feel that local hospitality is being abused.

Hopefully, this will not degenerate into a deterioration of ethnic relationships between natives and settlers in the Mampong municipality.

As the Mamponghene, Daasebere Osei Bonsu, wisely stated when he met party leadership at his palace following these utterances, “to all those who spewed those tribal sentiments, I want this reversed. I don’t want any tribal war in Mampong”.

Local party rejections of MMDCE nominations seem to be quite a staple in our local governance architecture over the years, straddling various administrations.

Under President Akufo-Addo, for instance, party activists protested against his nominees for Mpohor, Savelugu, Sagnarigu and Asunafo North.

Royal rejections at the local level have also been noted. For instance, the Overlord of Gonjaland, Yagbonwura Bii-kunuto Jewu Soale I, was reported earlier this month to have flatly rejected President Mahama’s nominee, Braimah Alhassan, as Municipal Chief Executive for the West Gonja Municipality in the Savannah Region.

Last year, President Akufo-Addo’s nominee for the DCE of the Lower District Assembly, Nana Kweku Abban, was rejected by the Twifo Hemang Traditional Council.

Even where local party activists or traditional overlords have not complained, nominees have been routinely rejected by the assemblies, where they are by law expected to secure a two-thirds majority approval.

For instance, in 2021, under the NPP, the nomination of the MCE for Cape Coast was twice rejected by the local assembly.

The nominees for Nabdam, Sekyere Kumawu, Atwima Nwabiagya, Offinso North and Juaben were also rejected by their respective assemblies, whilst back in 2008, President Kufuor’s nominee for the Wa Municipal Chief Executive position was rejected by the Wa Municipal Assembly.

I would not be surprised if some of President Mahama’s MMDCE nominees fail to sail through the two-thirds barrier in the weeks ahead.

Political bravery

As an aside, I have often caught myself wondering why anyone would want to put himself or herself through the paces to become president of our republic.

I find the prospect of carrying the security, welfare, pressures, burdens and expectations of over 30 million citizens on my head quite terrifying. But then, that is me.

Of course, I do understand the shiny allure of ultimate executive presidential power in the ‘imperial presidency’ that we operate, where the president is literally the monarch of all he or she surveys and enjoys immense power and privilege.

I suppose ‘His Excellency, Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces’, sounds quite grand and attractive, as does the opportunity to enter the country’s history books, among others.

Maybe a little power, whether ministerial or parliamentary or even financial, can be quite intoxicating, leading to grand presidential dreams and ambitions.

But the path to the presidency is quite a gruelling and tortuous one that can sap one’s physical, mental, financial and emotional energy.

It is a path that is surely not for the faint-hearted. Indeed, in the past, military adventurers who fancied themselves as heads of state found it more expedient to short-circuit the long, winding route to the top by simply taking arms and gunning their way to the top job through GBC studios.

Balancing act

Ordinarily, the President, as the ultimate leader of the country, has it within his gift to nominate various persons to the positions of MMDCE, and that decision, once made, should be respected.

However, given the fact that these nominees would be working within the local community, it is important to ensure that the community owns a part of the process.

It is in furtherance of this that nominees must obtain a two-thirds approval at the local assembly level before taking office.

Whilst the local groups of the governing party currently submit a list of potential nominees from which the president nominates his appointee, it is important that a broad-based, open party involvement in the process is ensured for everyone to buy into, with the relevant traditional rulers’ blessings.

This will then ensure that any of the persons on the local party’s list are acceptable to the community, ultimately eliminating, or at least reducing to a bare minimum, any post-nomination political tensions.

In the long run, if there is a good justification for electing MMDCEs, the avoidance of needless local political tension surely must count.

At least it will eliminate the burden of placing on the head of the President the responsibility of selecting his potential representative in a local community from a shortlist of people he most probably has never met.

That would surely be one less headache for the president.

Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.
E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com)