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03.04.2007 General News

Britain must compensate Northern Ghana

03.04.2007 LISTEN
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An educationist, Alhaji Adam Yakubu Ibrahima, has called for a Marshall Plan of Action for Northern Ghana to seek reparation from Britain.

He said such plan would help correct the development lapses that widened the gap between the North and the South.

He alleged that Britain deliberately accounted for the poor educational system and the lopsided development in the area, which had brought untold hardships to the people.

He has therefore called on the country's leaders and influential Northerners to draw a Marshal Plan that would focus purely on development in all areas of the northern setup and present it to the colonial master for assistance to bridge the gap between the North and the South of the country.

Alhaji Ibrahima made the appeal at a symposium at the ongoing Northern Easter School in Tamale on the topic: "Education in Northern Ghana, 50 years after independence."

He said: "Though the call is belated, it is necessary for us to tell our Colonial Master in plain language that he did not treat the North and its people fairly, for that matter he should do something to compensate us."

Alhaji Ibrahima, who is a deputy Director of Education in-charge of planning at the Tamale education office, said what the North needed now was establishment of industries and measures to improve its agriculture sector so that its citizens would be economically sound to cater for their children's education.

He advised people from the area to pay special attention to kindergarten education to nurture the children well into higher levels of education to improve the living conditions of the Northern people.

Alhaji Ibrahima who was a Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive under the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said successive governments after independence paid lip-service in transforming the situation in the North.

He said though there were reforms to address the educational gaps in the country, the national cake was not evenly distributed and called on leaders to have the political commitment to develop the North.

Dr Yakubu Seidu Peligah, Principal of the Tamale Polytechnic said some educational priorities in the North were misplaced since some of the courses being run in the schools had no places for industrial attachment.

He said the focus of education must always tally with the peculiar needs of the society and that courses ran in most of the tertiary institutions in the north had no bearing with the region's development.

He called on the government to set up factories and industries to absorb products from polytechnics in the three northern regions and those from the University for Development Studies (UDS).

Other contributors blamed politicians from the North for contributing to the woes of the North and asked them to have the political willpower to tell their leaders to develop the area.

Source: GNA

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