Address Northern Regions development disparity - MP

Bolgatanga, (U/E), Feb. 13, GNA- The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolgatanga Central, Mr. David Apasera, on Monday appealed to the Government to address the development gap between the Northern and the Southern part of the country.

He made the appeal at this year's annual "Adakoya" festival celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Bolgatanga Traditional Area in Bolgatanga.

The occasion was meant to express thanksgiving to the gods for a bumper harvest and for good health.

The MP blamed the underdevelopment of the North on the British colonial masters and urged government to as a matter of urgency set up an Independent Commission to come out with a blue print for the area's development.

He explained that the colonial masters used northerners as cheap labour and refused to provide education for them and rather concentrated on providing more educational facilities in the southern sector, which, he said, created the disparity.

He urged the Government to use the nations 50th anniversary celebrations to reflect on how to address the situation by the setting up of the Independent Commission.

"Failure to do so would be an indictment on the good conscience of this nation", Mr. Apasera pointed out.

The MP expressed worry about the greater number of students in the area who had qualified for higher institutions of learning but could not enter due to the lack of funds, and that he spends much of his common fund paying school fees.

He called on stakeholders and policy-makers in education to pay more attention to the development of education in the three northern Regions, emphasizing that it was one major tool that could be used to address the endemic poverty in the area. 13 Feb 07