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THE OKYENHENE, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has suggested to government to make governance much more decentralised by allowing people at the grassroots to elect their own District Chief Executives (DCEs). He said elections of DCEs would enable the people to hold their DCES accountable, adding that this would help accelerate development in the rural areas. According to the Okyenhene, the fear that the election of DCEs could also frustrate central government�s development agenda as some of the elected DCEs could come from opposition parties, should be defused, explaining that the government could nominate three people from its own party. �I don�t think this process will be counter-productive because the government should be allowed to nominate its own people it feels comfortable with and who can help achieve its overall development agenda so that the people can make their own choice from the three to ensure they would be strictly accountable to the people,� he said. The Okyenhene was speaking at the grand durbar to round off the Odwiratuo festival of chiefs and people in the Abuakwa state of the Eastern region at Kyebi, the traditional capital of Abuakwa, over the weekend. The colourful durbar was attended by all traditional leaders from the five divisions of the traditional area, chiefs from other parts of the country including the president of the National House of Chiefs, Prof Nabila, politicians as well as people from all walks of life. The Okyenhene said that even though stool lands contributed about 55% of the district assemblies� revenue, nothing showed for it in terms of development at the local level. �The government must think of decentralising not only governance, but management of community schools which could be entrusted into the hands of the local people,� he pointed out. He said management of school and health facilities in the district must be managed by committees set up by the communities themselves, with traditional leaders playing active parts so that the real needs of the people could be met. The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who was part of the government�s delegation to the festival, said the National Democratic Congress(NDC) government had deepened decentralization by creating 42 more districts to bring governance closer to the doorsteps of the local populace. According to him, very soon, the president would give his executive consent to bring the new districts into being. �We as a government have indeed deepened decentralization. We have even decentralised the sewing of uniforms for public schools and now tailors in the districts or the local communities are made to bid to take contracts to sew school uniforms� Vice President John Mahama indicated that the government had passed a legislation to decentralise all departments at the district level, adding that composite budgeting, where departments would have to make inputs into the budget at the district level, had started at the district level. He assured that the process of decentralisation would continue under the NDC government. Some of the key political figures at the functions were Nana Akufo-Addo, the flag-bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party and Madam Samia Yaaba Nkrumah, the chairperson of the Convention People�s Party (CPP).