Togbe Gbogbi Atsa V, Paramount chief of Adaklu, on Thursday pledged the readiness of traditional authorities to make the Adaklu District a point of reference for excellence in good governance.

“We want to assure the President that if local governance would become a tourist attraction in Ghana, it will surely start from the Adaklu District Assembly”, he said.

Togbe Atsa was speaking at the inauguration of the Adaklu District at Waya, the district capital.

He said the chiefs and people of the traditional area were grateful to the President for fulfilling his campaign promise, and they would reciprocate the gesture by using the district as an instrument for development of the area.

Togbe Atsa commended the people for ensuring peace and urged them to support the new Assembly to grow.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Volta Regional Minister Mr. Henry Ford Kamel, President John Evans Atta Mills said the creation of new Assemblies represented the fulfillment of one of the many promises in the 2008 National Democratic Congress (NDC) manifesto.

He said the establishment of new districts would deepen democracy and decentralization towards a better Ghana.

The President said government expected “nothing less than full and active” participation of the chiefs and people in the Assembly.

He said a District Resourcing Programme was being worked out within the framework of the recently launched Public Private Partnership Strategy, to provide each assembly with an office block, assembly hall and bungalows for its staff.

President Mills said basic needs strategy was also being worked out to ensure a minimum of two senior high schools, a district hospital, potable water and electricity for the district capital and access road to the district capital.

Mr. Edem Hiagbe Dzanku, Assembly Member for Adaklu Anfoe, described the event as “the second coming of Jesus Christ . It is a long awaited celebration and we are happy”.

Hundreds of people from the traditional area clad in white defied a downpour which delayed the programme for about three hours to celebrate the event.**