"Are we also Ghanaians?" -Youth

NPP Under Pressure The youth of Dormaa Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo region has brought the heat to bear on the NPP government. They are demanding to know whether they could also be counted as Ghanaians in the face of stifled development in the area.

The Dormaa Ahenkro Youth Association has provoked answers to the above question, which formed the basis of a petition dated March 17, 2004 headlined: "Are we also Ghanaians?" to the government.

They wanted the government to address their developmental needs, which had seemingly been neglected for a long time, else they would advise themselves.

The youth have threatened to boycott the elections if something was not done about their "sufferings."

The petition signed by the Secretary, Mr. William Yeboah, is concerned with the development of the Dormaa district which, according to the youth, was "thousand and one miles behind development."

The concerns of the people as addressed to the government through the media, bordered on bad roads, poor water supply, telecommunication systems and intermittent power supply.

The youth complain that the district capital and the entire district had seen no development for some years now. The people also claimed they had lived with poor T.V. reception in the area for the past two years without any remedial intervention.

"There is nothing new the District Assembly and for that matter the government has brought here". According to the petition, all the infrastructure one saw today were the same old things planted there many years ago and which were being left to rot.

They wondered whether the District was benefiting from the HIPC Relief funds and the District Assembly Common Funds meant for infrastructural development.

The youth believed the central government was withholding its (district) share of the mentioned relief funds.

According to the petition, Dormaa Ahenkro experienced over 500 power outages during last year and the situation had not improved currently. The situation, according to them, had led to the destruction of electrical appliances and gadgets while the VRA looked on unconcerned.

It is also alleged that water pumped from the Biaso Water works by the Ghana Water Company was not potable but the District Assembly was not acting on the problem.

The youth would therefore want the government to seriously consider the issues they had raised because they were not mere allegations but hard facts.

They warned the government not to wait till election time before it acted to serve the interest of the people.

"If that is their (government) plan, then their plan will backfire because we will go by our decision not to vote in the pending elections if our needs are not addressed.

"The threat is real because we have all it takes to influence people to refuse to vote or boycott the elections," the petition declared.