Chereponi, A Constituency In Transition

By Isaac Kyei Andoh

Chereponi District is one of the twenty (20) administrative districts in the Northern region of Ghana. The District shares boundaries with the following Districts; Gushegu District to the West; Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District to the North; Saboba and Yendi Districts to the South and South-West and The Republic of Togo to the East bordered by the River Oti.
Politically, it is made up of one (1) town and five (5) Area Councils. The Town Council is in Chereponi while the Area Councils are Wenchiki, Tombo, Tambong, Nansoni and Wonjuga. The Chereponi District in total has 196 settlements, 20 Unit Committees, 20 Electoral Areas, 33 Assembly members (20 elected and 11 Government appointees), Member of Parliament and District Chief Executive. The District has one (1) Constituency.
Over the past three years, the constituency which was hit by tribal conflict is enjoying a peaceful atmosphere and experiencing development at a pace that has left many wondering where the inspiration for such rapid change in attitude growth emanated from.
There is stability and the various tribes have co-existed peacefully and crop production has been on the increase. The polyclinic in the area has been upgraded to a fully equipped District Hospital with surgical equipment.
The Education Sector has also enjoyed its mark of progress over the past two and half years. The Chereponi Secondary school which used to be a day school has now been upgraded to a full boarding School with an over six hundred capacity hostel, dining hall and other equipment required for a full fledged boarding school. Enrolment since then has increased from hundred students back then to over one thousand pupils.
We caught up with the Member of Parliament for the Area, Hon. Samuel Jabanyitey for his side on what has been discovered and what lies ahead for the people of the area.
According to him, when he was elected Member of Parliament for the area in late 2009, he realized that the only way to ensure that the Constituency that had already been divided by tribal conflict did not eventually experience inter party conflict was to get close to the people and ensure that avenues were created for the people irrespective of political persuasion to benefit one way or the other from what is available to the constituency in his common fund.
He said he has placed much emphasis on the areas that directly affect the lives of the people. It is therefore not by accident that he has channelled the largest part of his common fund on development of road infrastructure, Education, Health and the Agric Sector.

Since 2009 through the collective effort of the Member Parliament, the Chereponi District Assembly and the people, they have expanded the road network of the area by over 50%. The road from Yendi to Cherepomi was constructed and a number of feeder roads were also provided.
The Agric Sector has also seen tremendous growth. From his common fund and more from other donor partners he has attracted to the area due to his lobbying prowess, renovated the district Agric Extension Office, Provided motor bikes to each of the veterinary and extension officers to enable them travel to the various villages and avail themselves to the people without much hindrances by way of transportation.
He added that over Hundred Thousand subsidized bags of assorted fertilizers have been supplied to the farmers through the various farmer based organizations in the area.
Unlike the past when tractors had to come from other towns, thereby increasing the cost of hiring, the Chereponi township and the farmers now have access to ten tractors, five of which the Member of Parliament provided for the District Assembly and five more for private usage and hiring.
“All these interventions helped increase our crop production by over 50% and we expect much more good stuff this crop season”.
“Agriculture is the breath of the people and it affects the people so any contribution to that sector affects every single individual irrespective of their political persuasion”.
He also attributed the upgrading of the health sector to the good works of the Austrian Government who upgraded it to a Polyclinic in 2008 and the Bulgarian counterparts who took it to a district Hospital status.
He called on investors to take advantage of the low cost of living in the area and the fertility of the land and see Chereponi as an avenue for making money especially in the area of agriculture.
He also called on Non-Governmental Organizations to bring their benevolent service to the people of the area to help avert the many social crises some of which he has used his common fund to control to a large extent in the area.

Source: The Citizen Newspaper (thecitizen.news@yahoo.com) +233 27 731 4655