For Sustainable Development Abandon Creation Of New Regions - And Focus Instead On Electing Chief Executives And Members Of District, Municipal And Metropolitan Assemblies

The ordinary people of the Gold Coast voted overwhelmingly to elect  candidates of the Convention People's Party (CPP), in the general elections of 1951, 1954 and 1956, for a very good reason.

In electing CPP candidates in those three important pre-independence general elections, they were sending a clear message to the rest of Africa that age-old tribalism did not have a future in the new Africa that would soon come into being - when they finally rid their motherland of its British occupiers: after independence in March 1957.

It is most unfortunate that today's progeny of the precolonial ruling elites - whose vision of a post-independence federal state made up of the precolonial tribal entities was roundly rejected by ordinary people in the Gold Coast  - have grown wings and resurfaced: and are now seeking to make the foolish tribalistic-dreams of their forebears a reality in 21st century Ghana, by demanding the creation of new regions. Incredible.

As they are wont to do when faced with an existential threat to our nation, our hard-of-hearing and hypocritical ruling elites are resorting to burying their heads in sand - which is their usual reaction when confronted with important national issues that need swift resolution.

The question is: Why are our ruling elites  refusing to accept the fact that it is only by carrying out the one reform actually needed in Ghana to ensure sustainable development at the grassroots level - the election of assembly members and chief executives of district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies - that our country's transformation into a prosperous society can take place?

It is hard to understand why many of those in power today are so keen to embark on a journey that will eventually end up destroying the cohesion  of the enterprise Ghana - particularly at a time when the need for national unity has never been greater in our country's post-independence history.

Luckily, most discerning individuals in this country who don't have the mentality of serfs and are neither enamoured of nor beholden to Chiefs - because they understand clearly that inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy - are aware that no transformation of Ghanaian society can take place if our democracy does not become a meritocratic society.

It  is no accident that the drive for the creation of new regions is spearheaded by Chiefs across Ghana. The Chieftancy institution is the last bastion of tribalism in Ghana. Incidentally, it ought to be pointed out that tribal-supremacists exist in all ethnic groups in Ghana. They spread  the miasma of prejudice and narrow-mindedness across our homeland Ghana directly from the palaces of Chiefs up and down our country. Clearly, they forget that in 21st century Africa, no tribe is inferior or superior to another.

There can be no justification for abandoning the one all-important reform that will make grassroots-level democracy possible  - and finally ensure that assembly members and chief executives of district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies nationwide are more responsive to the needs of local people - in favour of the creation of yet  more regions and adding another adminstrative layer to the workings of the machinery of state to be exploited by sundry white-collar criminals at Mother Ghana's expense.

Ordinary people across Ghana must reject the idea of creating yet more regions - and demand instead that  assembly members and chief executives of district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies are elected. Haaba.