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Chairman of the Peace Council in the Northern Region, Most Rev. Philip Naameh has appealed to the ruling New Patriotic Party and subsequent governments to embrace the opinions of political opponents in running the country.
The Peace Council Chair believes that inculcating the views of opponents in decision-making and policy implementation would help tame the highly-polarised political atmosphere in Ghana.
In his view, failure to build consensus on national issues would lead to division among the populace on political lines which is inimical to national growth and development.
He, therefore, suggested that ruling governments should adopt the listening character of the late President Atta Mills in consensus building on national issues.
“He [Prof Mills] knew that there would always be varying opinions or views on every national issue so he was willing to reach out to his political opponents on national issues. Parties in power have paid deaf ears to their opponents and many well-meaning Ghanaians who called for consensus on certain policies but these calls are disregarded”, said Most Rev. Philip Naameh.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Tamale continued that “this is the spirit we need today in our politics to bring down the political tension between NDC and NPP as we see happening in parliament. We need Professor Mills’ character of listening to bring all views and all people on board.”
He was speaking at the first of a series of lectures to mark a decade of the passing of the late President John Atta Mills organised by the Atta Mills Memorial Heritage.
Also speaking in the same lecture, Majority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu noted that the late president would never have agreed to pass the controversial e-levy given how divided the nation was on the proposed 1.5% tax on electronic transactions.
He also attributed the non-passage to the unconstitutionality of the e-levy bill which was passed by parliament and assented into law by President Akufo–Addo.
