A Deputy Chairman of National Commission for Civic Education has said that the needed change for the development of Ghana must be led by the citizens, not politicians.

 Kathleen Addy recounts that history is replete with examples of how citizens came together to form and build nations.

The citizens’ conversation on Joy FM is motivated by the many underdeveloped sectors of the Ghanaian economy despite flowery promises from political leaders to fix them when elected.

Without discounting the importance of leaders, Addy argued on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Monday that political leaders always act in ways that get them rewards from the citizenry.

“I think citizens can lead change, they can get leaders to do what they want. Politicians are rational; they give more of the behaviours that are rewarded,” she told sit-in host of the SMS, Animwaa Anim Addo.

Citing the office of Member of Parliament to illustrate her point, she said citizens must get to a point where what is important to them (for instance roads, healthcare, education, etc.) become the criteria that a potential Member of Parliament satisfies before earning a vote.

She argued that the lack of development and other failings of political leaders is simply a question of citizens electing leaders based on factors that do not encourage development.

But all is not lost. The anomaly, she pointed out, can be rectified, if citizens are educated to know that politicians will always do what gets rewarded by the people