It was an occasion for joy and pride for elected assembly members of the Ga South Municipal Assembly as they thronged the forecourt of the assembly at Weija for their inaugural ceremony.
The 27-member assembly was inaugurated by Ms Obuobia Darko-Opoku, the 2012 parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Weija Gbawe constituency, on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama.
Chiefs clad in their traditional Kente , friends and families of the assembly members came in their numbers to grace the occasion.
This is the sixth batch of assembly members under the Fourth Republic to be sworn into office.
The District Assembly Elections under the Fourth Republic comes every four years. The first took place in 1994 and the fifth election in 2010.
The sixth milestone, which was scheduled for March 2015, suffered hiccups as it was cancelled because of a Supreme Court decision.
The Ga South Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Jerry Akwei Thompson, in his address, said district assemblies had ushered in a new system of governance designed to empower the people at the grass roots to manage their affairs at the local level.
Mr Thompson, therefore, urged assembly members to bury their differences in the supreme interest of the people who elected them into the assembly and work as a team.
He said the situation where assembly members constituted themselves into an opposition to the Municipal Assembly to pursue different agenda did not augur well for the municipality.
Mr Thompson stated that one of the major problems facing the Ga South Municipal Assembly was environmental sanitation which was being handled by the monthly clean-up exercise by the Local Government Ministry.
On roads, the MCE said the Mandela to Ayigbe town roads, the Evans Atta Mills by-pass and a number of drainage systems had been worked on to stop the perennial flooding of the area.
Good governance
Ms Darko-Opoku called on assembly members to make it a duty to demand accountability from themselves and the management of the assemblies.
That, she said, would help assure the people of the credibility of the assemblies in respect of decision-making and delivery of services to the people.
She said their election and appointment as assembly members were a mark of the confidence the people had in them and urged them to live up to the responsibilities reposed in them.
She added that during their four-year tenure as assembly members they were expected to serve the people in the various electoral areas and communities to improve their general living conditions and make them part of the decision-making process and governance at the local level.
She said assembly members were expected to explain policies for the ordinary Ghanaian to understand the participatory democracy that the country had adopted.
She noted that the unique roles assembly members played in exercising their functions, especially at the grassroots, had helped in promoting good governance, democracy and peace in the country
Ms Darko-Opoku said assembly members should work for the public good and not for their personal interest.
She said after 27 years of experimenting the decentralised system of government, the country could say with pride that the decision to decentralise had been justified.
In a related development, Charles Andoh reports that nine assembly members and four government appointees were on Tuesday sworn into office for a four-year term at the Ga Central Municipal Assembly (GCMA) at Sowutuom.
The assembly members were led by a High Court Judge, Justice Mrs Abena Opong Adjen Doku, to take their oath of office.
However, the election of a Presiding Member (PM) to assist in the activities of the assembly members was postponed, since none of those elected earlier was able to obtain the required votes.
Administering the oath of office, Justice Mrs Doku impressed upon the newly elected members to carry out their duties without fear, and do good to all everyone.
Introduce innovative ideas
In an address, the Municipal Chief Executive of the GCMA, Mr Aristo Aryee, challenged the assembly members to introduce innovative ideas that would bring a lot of investors to the area to enhance development.
Mr Aryee also called on them to rally behind him to mobilise the indigenes for effective and continued growth and expansion.
He used the occasion to also congratulate the members on their new positions and roles and urged them to work together as one group committed towards the development of the municipality.
“You should ensure that you fulfil your campaign promises to the electorates; do not relent on your efforts but be at the forefront in organising people for the monthly sanitation exercise,” he said.
The occasion was witnessed by traditional authorities, heads of departments and institutions, as well as security heads.
