In a recent public lecture titled "A Common Manifesto for our Common Future," Michael Kottoh, Lead Consultant at Konfidant, an international advisory firm with a focus on the Africa region, presented a strong argument in favor of outlawing party manifestos in Ghana. This audacious claim has spurred an important discussion about how Ghana's political system should change in order to support real national development.
According to Michael Kottoh, Ghana's current political structure—which permits presidential candidates to vie on the basis of their own manifestos—is detrimental to the advancement of the nation. He argues that Ghana's development is hampered by the lack of a unified national development plan, like those that have been effectively implemented by nations like Malaysia, Singapore, and China.
He advocates for the banning of party manifestos, asserting that only by doing so can Ghana achieve a common national development plan, which in turn would propel the country into economic stability and infrastructural development.
Kottoh's proposal suggests that in the absence of manifestos, presidential candidates can be assessed based on their ability to achieve national 'Key Performance Indicators (KPI)'. This, he believes, would allow citizens to determine whether a candidate is capable of driving the nation toward its developmental goals.
However, not everyone agrees with Kottoh's call for banning manifestos. David Ofosu-Dorte, Executive Chairman of AB, and David Africa, who was a guest speaker at the lecture, offer an alternative perspective. Rather than advocating for the ban of manifestos, he suggests that the citizenry should play a more active role in shaping the contents of party manifestos. He highlights that his analysis of manifestos produced by Ghana's main political parties since 1992 reveals that crucial issues, essential to national development, are often overlooked or not adequately addressed.
He said that his analysis also showed that, with the exception of the wording of the points that differ, the two major parties generally say the same things in their manifestos.
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Fascinatingly, none of these manifestos seem to highlight the soft issues that are essential to their success. For example, the manifestos contain several provisions pertaining to security. What precisely is security in an anarchic society, though? He asserted that security is impossible in an unruly society, no matter how many plans are made.
Therefore, the true issue is not with what the manifestos say, but rather with what they omit. Because, in my opinion, the manifestos remain silent on crucial issues that really form the basis. After providing numerous additional instances of the parallels between manifesto pledges made by different economic sectors, David Ofosu-Dorte stated, "It's either they're completely silent on them or they do not address them adequately."
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