Government for the People(G4P) series of regional fora, an initiative of government to create avenue for government-citizen engagement may suffer a bad patronage in the upper east region owing to lack of publicity ahead of the event in Bolgatanga on Thursday June 23, 2016.
The Ministry of Communications began the 2016 series with visits to other regions including the central region. The forum is aimed at creating avenues for sector ministers to engage the people, outline government’s initiatives and offer the citizenry the opportunity to interrogate the ministers and seek answers to issues of primary concern to them.
The upper east region is scheduled to take its turn on Thursday 23rd June 2016 with five sector ministers including Interior, Health, Communications, Transport, Roads and Highways making public presentations on their programs and levels of implementation. However, checks by A1 radio revealed a situation of total absence of publicity with barely 24 hours to the august gathering.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East show, Wednesday, upper east regional minister Hon. Albert Abongo confirmed the coming-off of the program but admitted that there has been a poor publicity to create public awareness.
“The issue of poor publicity came to notice yesterday but I have asked that the announcements should be intensified to create public awareness and I would encourage that you use your platform to tell the people and send the message across so that people can be part,” he said.
A1 Radio conducted an interview among the citizenry on their expectations from the ministers of state. Many expressed worry over the developmental issues bothering the region.
Among them is the indefinite close down of senior high schools in Northern Ghana as a result of government’s failure to release feeding grants to schools for three consecutive terms. As a matter of fact, students have been asked to stay home while the authorities work out and wait for the issue to be resolved.
The poor nature of the roads in the region is of major concern to the people. According to them, the poor nature of roads in the region affects their businesses and movement, even to the extent that others lose their lives while plying the roads.
Illegal logging and depletion of forest reserves has become the order of the day in the region. Citizens say the felling of these trees has led to land degradation and air pollution in the affected areas. They also lamented the failure of SADA in the past to ensure afforestation to help curb the issue of climate change.
Unemployment rate in the country is on the rise and the region is not left out. Due to lack of jobs, many youth are wasting away their knowledge and skills which could have been used to contribute to the growth of the economy. Citizens say there is the need for the youth to be gainfully employed to help reduce crime rate in the country.
The year-long fora are under the theme Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana.
By: Anuseh Nadia | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA
