President John Dramani Mahama said the implementation and enforcement of by-laws at the various municipal, metropolitan and district assemblies (MMDCAs) would, henceforth, be used as performance appraisal to renew their mandates.

He said by-laws were supposed to be implemented and enforced but not to be kept on the shelves adding that any MMDCA that failed to enforce by-laws, especially those on sanitation, would not have their mandate renewed.

President Mahama said this in Tamale on Saturday when he joined members of the Northern Regional chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to clean parts of the Tamale Metropolis as part of the National Sanitation Day (NSD) exercise.

The Northern Regional GJA, in partnership with the National Lottery Authority (NLA), took the centre stage in the metropolis to clean parts of the city as contributing their quota towards the achievement of the NSD exercise instead of always reporting on the exercise.

The GJA and partners, joined by the Ghana National Fire Service, Police, Military and other voluntary institutions cleaned the premises of the Tamale West Hospital and around the Northern Regional Police Command and later converged at the Tamale Teaching Hospital where President Mahama joined in the exercise.

President Mahama said: “From now on I am going to use implementation and enforcement of by-laws at the various assemblies as performance appraisal to renew the mandate of the DCEs and MCEs so I want all of them to be up and doing”.

He commended the leadership of the GJA in the region for joining in the national exercise saying, “Journalism is indeed not only about reporting on things said or things that happened but helping to achieve a national course for the benefit of the generality”.

Mr Caesar Abagali, Northern Regional Chairman of the GJA, said the media took the initiative because sanitation was a serious issue confronting the nation and stressed the need for the GJA to help champion the course so that the public would appreciate the essence of the exercise.

He thanked the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Zoom Lion, the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and Voltic Ghana Limited for supporting the GJA to embark on the exercise and called for a stronger bond for future programmes and projects.

He gave the assurance that journalists would continue to partner the state to embark on initiatives that would help in nation building saying, “all hands must always be on deck in the development of the nation”.