Editoria: Motor Bikes Are Not Enough For Assembly Members

Assembly members are to be provided with motor bikes to facilitate their work in the decentralization process. Apart from that, the motor bikes are expected to notice people with better qualification to offer their services to the assemblies. The interim chairman of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NLAG), Isaac Kwasi Kodobisah, who announced this in Kumasi, last week, said that the motor bikes will be purchased with funds from the Common Fund. It sounds very interesting for anyone to believe that motor bikes can be used to lure qualified people into the local assemblies. The move is simply echoing the fact that people serving in the assemblies are not qualified enough and that is seriously affecting the decentralization process. Problems confronting assembly members are numerous and the provision of the motor bikes is just not enough. As it stands now, most of the assembly members do not even have offices where they can easily be reached by the electorate. The situation is quite serious in the big cities and towns and for the years that they may serve people with problems may never have the chance to locate their assembly members. If indeed the government wants to attract more qualified people into the programme, then there is the need to look beyond the provision of motor bikes. However, the little that has been provided should urge the assembly members to work as expected. The motor bikes are not given out to them for nothing but to help them to be in constant touch with the people they are serving. Measures should be put in place to sanction those who will use the motor bikes for political campaign in their districts.