AU urged to strengthen good governance to progress

Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Senior Fellow of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy, on Friday said the Africa Union (AU) needs good governance in to make progress.

He said good governance had become imperative in Africa’s forward march, and regional blocks like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) establishing a common currency, would let the international community troupe in to trade with it.

Dr Antwi-Danso made the remark during a roundtable discussion, organised by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, as part of activities marking the Golden Jubilee celebration of the AU in Accra.

It was on the theme: “Ghana’s Democratization Process So Far: The Africa Charter on Democracy, Elections and Good Governance in Focus.”

Dr Antwi-Danso said Pan-Africanism set itself to emancipate Africans both politically and economically.

He said integration must go beyond democracy and trade to include good governance adding that the bane of integration was bad laws and lack of good roads to facilitate smooth transportation.

Dr Antwi-Danso said many a time democracy was equated to good governance but this was not entirely true because a country may be democratic but may not have good governance system.

He said transparency was the quest for prudence in economic governance and  that those things that made the rulers to be accountable and the governed to be responsible was what good governance stood for.

He said budget deficits did not portray good governance and that when the tenets of good governance were adhered to democratic gains could be consolidated.

Dr Antwi-Danso urged Parliament to be up and doing in exercising its constitutional mandate in overseeing the activities of the Executive to help enforce good governance.

He said there could be no good governance as long as journalists, who were to inform and educate the people, did not understand what good governance was all about.

Dr Antwi-Danso advised the media to be very circumspective otherwise they might plunge the nation into chaos.

Mr Joseph Whittal, Deputy Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, said Ghana’s democratic credentials and respect for human rights was a model for the rest of Africa.

He, however, said discrimination and some very dehumanization cultural practices in the country was affecting the vulnerable in society, especially women, and called for it to be addressed.

Mr Fredrick Alipui, former AU Trade and Industry Director, said Africans had the duty to complete the uncompleted task of Pan-Africanism and called for the removal of physical barriers that was hindering regional integration and trade liberalization.

Source: GNA