A legal consultant, Mr David Ofosu-Dorte, has said appointing regional ministers and district chief executives based on indigenous areas and tribes is inimical to the development efforts of the country. Furthermore, appointing them to serve in their areas of origin polarised the country and prevented Ghanaians from uniting in the attainment of a common national vision. His comments come at a time when the chiefs and people in some districts are kicking against presidential nominees for the District Chief Executive position because these nominees do not hail from the area. Mr Ofosu-Dorte, -the Chief Executive Officer of AB & David Law, a legal firm in the country, made his observations at a lecture titled "Reflections, Lamentations and Recommendations of an ordinary Ghanaian," at an IMANI Thought Leadership Forum in Accra. IMANI Centre for Policy and Education is a think tank that focuses on engaging in enlightened enquiry for policy and good governance initiatives and the IMANI Thought Leadership Forum is one of the channels by which this is achieved. The lecture, a crystallisation of the reflections of Mr Ofosu-Dorte on some events in the country, comprised several attitudes and acts of Ghanaians that needed to be changed. These included the failure of Ghanaians to emphasise unity in national efforts, the failure to change unproductive attitudes of the Ghanaian and the failure to change entrenched systems that impeded the development of the country. He titled these key issues lamentations, signifying the repetitive nature of these issues and how Ghanaians seemed comfortable with these retrogressive practices although quite simple in rectifying. On the.appointment of ministers and DCEs based on tribal and ethnic affiliations, he pointed out that the Komkomba-Nanumba conflict in the early 1990s took the input of Mr Joshua Alabi, who was not an indigene, to restore some calm, while the role of Mr Ernest Debrah, a former Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, was significant in the Andani-Abudu conflict. These examples, he emphasised, showed' that Ghanaians could take the right decisions for the right results however, they usually did not. Mr Ofosu-Dorte also condemned the practice of Ghanaians announcing every death of a relative to the president, which he felt disrupted work at the executive office. That is part of the attitudes of the Ghanaian that have to change; with the disregard for time, particularly when they perform well, better than their peers from other African countries abroad. On the tendency of Ghanaians sticking to a position, even if it impedes development, and on the issue of the ex gratia for the ex-president and other public officials, Mr Ofosu-Dorte asked, for instance, what the effect on the country would be, if a former president were to award himself the airport. The Ghanaian attitude to time and work in the country, disrespect for the rule of law, information and how it was treated as a state secret, even if it was already in the public domain, how innovation is not rewarded and how most people put premium on foreign rather than locally manufactured goods were some of the other retrogressive attitudes in the country he mentioned. Making recommendations, he proposed the institution of National Ghana Flag Day of the first Saturday of every month, a made-in-Ghana clothing month championed by Parliamentarians and ministers, the creation of multiparty events once a year, where all parties would mix for games under the auspices of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee' of the Electoral Commission, and the concerted and committed effort of all to ensure that the country stood to gain in its efforts at progress. He also proposed that regional ministers, after vetting, should be reshuffled and sent to other regions they did not .hail from to engender cohesion, unity and understanding among Ghanaians. The moderator of the function, Mr Kofi Bentil, who is also a Senior Fellow of IMANI, made the observation that politicians did not always have the wisdom needed to bring about the needed changes in the lives of the people. Therefore, the forum, sought to bring on board the ideas of other people who were not politicians. Source: Daily Graphic