Having lived through all the political regimes of this country, Captain (Rtd.) Joel Kwame Sowu has described Ghana as a country which lacks a national development plan.

Speaking on Prime Morning with Benjamin Akakpo on Tuesday, he said, “...this country has no development plan…”

Recounting the eve of independence, Captain Sowu shared how joyous the entire country was on the declaration of independence from the British by Dr Kwame Nkrumah. 

“… we had high hopes. We were the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence, and that meant a lot to the people of Ghana…”

However, living through all the political regimes, Captain Sowu stated that one thing that is clear to him is that there is no coordinated road map for development of the country. 

“The National Development Planning Commission, which is supposed to supervise such planning has become so heavily politically dependent that it has no plan….”

He called for a reconstitution of the National Development Planning Commission to involve all national stakeholders to draft a unified plan for the country’s development. 

In his opinion, having a national plan means that, when it comes to elections, political parties would be under obligation to turn to it and carve out their individual manifestoes in line with its dictates. 

He argued that with such a plan, whichever political party that comes into power will only be fulfilling an aspect of it they adopt as a political party and not just fulfilling independent political promises. 

Captain (Rtd.) Joel Kwame Sowu further called for a bottom-up approach to the process of developing a national plan. 

“Planning the nation's development must start from the community to the district, regional, and then to the national level…” he said. 

He said the bottom-up approach to developing the national plan will ensure that the actual needs of the citizenry are incorporated in what becomes the national plan.

By doing so, the citizenry will be satisfied, and the democracy that we claim to be practising as a people will also be exemplified.