Residents of Bolgatanga in the upper east region of Ghana are calling on President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo to rescind his decision to construct an aerodrome in Paga in the Upper East region instead of an airport.
They say, all the regions have airports, therefore constructing an aerodrome will not help the Upper East Region.
In a random interview conducted by A1News, while some residents expressed disappointment in the decision of government to construct an aerodrome for the people of the Upper East instead of an airport earlier proposed, others say the government does not take the people of the region seriously.
They said building an airport will open the region up to other parts of the country and create employment for the teaming unemployed youth in the region.
“I think we need the airport than the aerodrome because if it’s an airport I think it will make easy access for people to be able to fly into our region and for our people here to be able to get easy access to move other parts of the country. Secondly, it will bring employment opportunities because most of the people here, the youth will move around the airport to do some businesses that will generate income to be able to feed themselves and their families. So, I think the airport would be more beneficial to us than the aerodrome.” Azumah Raphael said.
Another resident, Albert Atia shared his view, “We don’t need aerodrome, we need an airport that will bring about other developmental activities, other economic activities around. Besides that, I’ve never seen an airport that is not in the capital city. Airports are always built in the capital city and that helps to also generate jobs for other people. It’s an airport that the people of the Upper East want not an aerodrome do you understand? Is it that Upper East doesn’t deserve an airport? I want them to understand that we need proper development not aerodromes and they should bring it to the capital. We want a commercial airport at least something like the Wa airport.”
Anafo Robert, a resident also doesn’t understand why the president will mention an aerodrome in the 2021 Budget Statement instead of an airport. “It will be in order for the government to explain to us why they have chosen to give us the aerodrome instead of the airport? As we speak, we don’t know what has gone into the national budget and whether they even have the resources to give us the airport, but notwithstanding, we expect that aside from just giving us the budget reading and the figures and so on and so forth, they should follow up to give us explanation; tell us what has gone into this decision. I think that would be cool but I insist that Upper East deserves its fair share of the national cake and we should be given what we deserve which I think, the airport is a good thing.”
There was a proposed site around Sumburugu in Bolgatanga Municipality in the early 90s to construct an airport for the people of Upper East however, this proposed area has been lying there for decades, only to hear another location which is no longer an airport but an aerodrome.
This proposal captured in the 2021 budget delivered by the minister of state in charge of government business in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah has infuriated a lot of people in the region.
They are therefore calling on the government to either construct an airport or rescind his decision to construct an aerodrome that will not serve the people a good purpose.
Source: a1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Samuel Adagom|Ghana
