Upper West Citizens accuse President Kuffuor -Rejoinder

I write in connection with the above article which appeared on Ghana Web's General News page of Saturday, March 13, 2004.

My gratitude goes first and foremost to the organisations that facilitated the forum during which the accusations were made.

The participants at the forum also have my heartfelt congratulations for having the courage to tell things as they really are.

It is high time that the authorities at the helm of affairs in Ghana are made aware of their deliberate or unintended mistreatment of the three Northern Regions when sharing the national cake.

I have been closely following the distribution of projects under the PSI and cannot but concurr with the participants at the forum that there has not been any move whatsoever since the inception of the PSI to locate a single one of them anywhere up North.

I am particularly offended by the explanation of the Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman, Mr Kwabena Agyepong, that the PSI is in its pilot stage.

Who does the he think he is fooling with this lame excuse for not siting any PSI project in the North?

What prevents the siting of a project, whether pilot or not, in one of the Northern Regions of the country?

Presumably even pilot projects benefit the communities in which they are located.

They surely provide some employment for the locals and opportunities to develop and sharpen their management skills.

Don't people in the North deserve these benefits?

I suppose pilot projects are initiated with hopes that they will succeed and grow to become big and permanent.

Let's assume, for once, that some of the PSI projects already started down South actually turn out successful.

What happens?

More people in the areas where the projects are located get employment.

By this token alone they are economically empowered and able to do alot more for themselves than their counterparts in any area up North.

Add to this the management know-how they would have gained through running the pilot projects from inception to growth and maturity .

Do you see how much bigger the economic and social gaps between the North and the South would have become?

Talk of the North lagging behind the rest of the country in development!!!.

There will never come a time when this part of the country will catch up with the rest of the country unless and until our governments do things concurrently down South and up North.

This is the only way Ghana can develop to become the economic powerhouse of the West African Region.

Mr Agyepong's referrence to the present Government's plans to extend the rail network to the North looks to me like a diversionary gimmick, something said to smooth ruffled feathers.

Here is a group of deprived people complaining that not enough has been done so far by the government in power to help them improve their lot.

This is basically what they are saying:

?Our regions have also been endowed with lots of natural resources of economic value both nationally and internationally.

However we need the same kind of assistance our government is giving to growers of cocoa, cassava, palmnut etc. in the South to also increase the quantity and quality of our output.

This is our main concern now.?

Instead of dealing with this specific request Mr Agyepong drags in the issue of a railway line extension to the North!!

Of what relevance is a train to regions that are still unable to produce beyond subsistence level?

When production levels go beyond levels needed locally the need to export will arise.

Then and then only will the rail link being touted become vitally important.

For now I wonder what uses a railway up North will be put.

Will the trains be used to transport people from the North to find work in the more developed South?

In any case what exactly does the Kuffour government's commitment to the railway project mean?

Can it show the people of the North any concrete steps it has taken to implement this project?.

Has even a feasibility study been initiated after 3 years of being in power?

In short, politicians must now begin to realise that the downtrodden people of the North are becoming wary of the grandiose promises they make to us any time they want our votes to win elections.

We have come of age politically after having closely studied and monitored the gap between past governments' campaign promises to us and their delivery once assisted to win elections.

Therefore what was said at the ISODEC forum should not be taken as mere hot air but a pointer to what voters will be thinking about as they decide for whom to cast their votes in subsequent elections.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.