|
Northern intellectuals urged to
champion development
Tamale, Dec. 05, Ghanadot/GNA- Politicians and intellectuals
from the North have been urged, "to find home grown
solutions" to complement efforts of the government and
development partners to address the development challenges
facing the area.
Mrs. Mary Chinery-Hesse, Chief Adviser to the President, who
made the call, said since independence, Northern politicians
had placed more focus on politics, neglecting other
development priorities such as poverty reduction, education
and health.
"The North would continue to lag behind in development in
spite of any intervention from the government and
development partners, if intellectuals and politicians from
the area do not harness the rich natural and human resources
the area was endowed with for its development", she said.
Mrs. Chinery-Hesse was addressing a roundtable conference on
the strategy for sustainable development of Northern Ghana
in Tamale on Wednesday.
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the
Institute of Policy Alternative (IPA) organised the forum in
the wake of the floods that devastated the area and the
establishment of the Northern Development Fund.
Members of Parliament, Ministers of State, including the
Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji
Abubakari Saddique Boniface and the Minister of Health,
Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), development partners and the
regional economic planning officers of the three Northern
Regions, attended the forum.
The two-day conference would help draw up future strategies
for the sustainable development of the North and determine
how the government's long term development plan could be
aligned with development partners perspectives for
supporting Ghana in bridging the development gap between the
South and the North.
Mrs. Chinery-Hesse noted that the country's development
partners had placed a lot of emphasis on the development of
the North and therefore called on politicians from the area
to use their talent to tap the resources for the development
of the area.
The President's Chief Adviser called for attitudinal change
among the people of Northern Ghana, especially those in
leadership positions adding that, they should develop
programmes that would involve the active participation of
the people and lead to the improvement in the quality of
their lives.
On the establishment of the Northern Development Fund (NDF),
Mrs. Chinery-Hesse reiterated that it was seed money meant
for the development of Northern Ghana and not as was being
speculated in some quarters.
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, said
Northern Ghana had not appreciated any meaningful
development since independence and noted that it would take
a long time for the area to catch up with the South.
He said in view of the poverty situation in Northern Ghana
there was a need for a concerted effort, the political will,
commitment and the active participation of the people to
narrow the development gap between the South and the North.
Alhaji Boniface on his part described the Conference as a
wake-up call for Northerners to solve their own problems and
said the North had been deprived in many areas particularly
in the area of education, which was at the core of any
development activity.
GNA
|
