<<Print>>

Professor Kwesi Botchwey, Executive Chairman of the African Development Policy Initiative (ADPOI) has bewailed what he termed “the raging vengefulness and recrimination” that had characterised the country’s body politics.

The practice, he said provided fertile grounds for sowing seeds of debilitating generational conflicts.

“The cycle of vengefulness and recriminations in our politics has and still dissect the nation and often sees contractors driving to ruing, that sees even public servants, more or less summarily dismissed for barely disguise political reasons” he lamented.

Prof Botchwey, Ghana’s former and longest serving Finance Minister was speaking at the sixth John Evans Atta Mills Commemorative Lecture on Monday.

The lecture was jointly organised by the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the Government of Ghana (GoG) and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in furtherance of Professor Mills’ ideals and commitment to the advancement of law and governance in Ghana and across Africa.

Prof Botchwey consequently, charged the nation to move from the intense polarisation and begin to emphasis more on ethics to help sustain the legitimacy of democratic governance.

He was of the view that that achievement when chalked, would be a fitting tribute to the late President who sought to eliminate the style of politics that mistook power as an opportunity to reap vengeance.

The lecture attended by diplomats, present and former ministers of state, academics, political, traditional and religious leaders as well as the Mills Family, was on the theme “Ethicality, Democracy and National development, the legacy of President Atta Mills”.

Prof Botchwey reiterated calls to broaden the process of consultation over critical matters that affected the common good to significantly stem the tide of polarisation in the country.

He underscored the need for training in ethics in policy making, campaign strategies and messaging for other political actors and the media for better understanding of social theory and the rules of the country’s social democracy.

The former Finance Minister praised the late Prof Mills whom he said was an embodiment of ethicality and spoke extensively about the need to put an end to the cycle of vengefulness and recriminations of political transitions in the country.