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28.10.2018 Politics

Creation Of New Regions Woefully Unscientific

By CitiNewsRoom
Creation Of New Regions Woefully Unscientific
28.10.2018 LISTEN

A former Presidential staffer and Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Gyata George has sided with critics who believe the creation of new regions will not develop those areas.

To him by creating new regions will not automatically fix problems in those areas.

He said despite the creation of Upper East and Upper West Regions those areas continue to top poverty indices in the country.

“As an individual I disagree with the creation of new regions. Whether it is the NDC or NPP, I do not believe that the creation of new regions will fix the problems they claim they are going to fix. For example, Upper East and Upper West when they were disaggregated from the Northern Region have not brought any extraordinary development,” he argued on Citi FM/Citi TV's news analysis programme The Big Issue on Saturday.

The Ningo Prampram legislator on the show also said before new regions are created there is a need to undertake scientific analysis to back their creation.

“…Let us do an empirical analysis; there must be some scientific proof that the creation of regions enhances development. And I am using Upper East and Upper West as examples to show that today every matrix on poverty places those two regions in the top even after the creation of these two regions. So it then means that over 20 or 30 years after the creation of these regions it did not fix the developmental and poverty challenges of the people,” he added.

Background
Processes are currently afoot for the creation of six additional regions in the country following a recommendation by a commission of enquiry which handed its report to the president a few months ago.

The 19-member Commission after holding national consultations urged the government to create the administrative regions to be known as Oti, Ahafo, Brong East, Western North, North East and Savanna.

A referendum is expected to be held in the beneficiary areas before the creation of the new regions.

But some stakeholders in some of the areas especially from parts of the Volta Region are unhappy with the move.

President Nana Akufo-Addo bantered with some Ghanaians in the US in September 2018 over plans to create the Oti Region.

They questioned why the referendum for the creation of the new regions is limited to only the beneficiary communities.

Togbe Afede on the creation of Oti Region
President of the National House of Chiefs, Togbe Afede XIV last week expressed some reservation about the processes adopted for the creation of the new regions but clarified that he is not against the creations .

According to him, his major concerns have been about how to ensure that that process is smooth and does not spark protests and conflicts in the end.

Speaking to Citi News' Vivian Kai Lokko, he said some have sought to misinterpret his interest in the development as being against the government's plan to create new regions.

“For the avoidance of doubt, let me state it categorically, Togbe is not against the creation of new regions. People should not divert attention from the truth of what I am looking at and claim I'm against the creation of new regions, no I am not against it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have invited Dan Botwe myself to let him know the issues involved and how to carry all of Volta Along. Questions about the name, the boundary, the capital and the message that will go with it. I've tried to support a smooth process for the realisation of the government's objective,” he said.

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