Investigative Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni is unhappy about the Upper East Region’s lack of development. Mr. Awuni is convinced that there are two major reasons why the region is unable to develop.
The first, the Investigative Journalist said, is the central government’s inability to decentralise development towards the northern half of the country, speaking specifically about the Upper East Region.
Mr. Awuni added that another major reason is the inability of policy makers and high-ranking officials from the Upper East Region who have not been able to use their positions to influence the level and rate of development in the region.
He spoke exclusively to Ibrahim Aziz on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
“If you want to take road infrastructure alone, I do not think we have had our fair share, and the blame should go both ways—the central government and the policymakers who hail from this region.”
“It is not for nothing that when there are ministerial appointments, those doing the appointments want to look at the regional balance. It is not for nothing that every constituency here has an MP who is supposed to represent the interests of their people in Parliament.”
Referencing his book, The Fourth John: Reign, Rejection and Rebound, Mr. Azure shared his insights about politics in Northern Ghana.
“It was never about ethnicity. It was about the development of the people. It was how come you had the Northern People’s Party, made up of the Bawumias, the Mahamas, the Karbos. Their aim and interest in going to Parliament was to push for the development of this part of the country. So if about 60 or 70 years later we are still having the same conversation, and the region is so neglected, but the people who get the opportunity to go to Parliament have their lives significantly transformed in Parliament, then there is an issue.”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith| Bolgatanga
