Former United Nations Governance Advisor, Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has expressed deep concern over Ghana’s lack of a unified national development plan, arguing that political transitions continue to disrupt progress.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show about the frequent replacement of government appointees, he noted that Ghana operates on fragmented party manifestos rather than a collectively accepted vision.
“I think the biggest challenge regarding appointments and replacements is that we do not have a national vision.
“We have party manifestos, but no vision is accepted by all parties, let alone a comprehensive development strategy,” he said.
Prof. Agyeman-Duah referenced past efforts to establish a national plan, recalling a significant document developed under the NDC government.
“I know that in previous years, under the NDC government, my good friend Dr Nii Thompson, along with Prof Kwasi Botwe (of the National Development Planning Commission), produced what I consider to be a highly respectable document.
“We could have reviewed or refined it and accepted it as a national plan,” he remarked.
However, he lamented that successive governments have disregarded such initiatives, choosing instead to govern based on their own manifestos.
His frustration stems from the continued cycle of political changes affecting development efforts, leading to stalled or abandoned projects. “For me, this is why our development process is going nowhere,” he concluded.
