Bole (N/R), April 13, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama has said the creation of a new region out of the Northern Region should be in the interest of all northerners and not seen as the agenda of any group of people.

He said the Northern Region covered a vast expanse of land and it was therefore necessary for it to be divided into two to ensure effective and smooth administration and its accelerated development. Vice President Mahama said this in response to an appeal by the Gonja Traditional Council to expedite action on the creation of another region out of the present northern region at the 33rd Annual Congress of the Gonjaland Youth Association (GYA) in Bole on Sunday. The theme for the Congress was: "Challenges of the Gonjaland Youth Association at 33."

The Gonja Traditional Council has since 2003 petitioned the previous NPP government for the creation of another administrative region out of the Northern Region.

Vice President Mahama said the creation of a new region would be based on merit and in accordance with due constitutional processes. The Vice President said the tarring of the remaining portion of the Bole/Bamboi road and the Swala/Fulfuso road was a priority concern of government and special funding was being sought for the project. He re-echoed governments intention to use agriculture as the pivot for the development of the country and said in line with this a Youth in Agriculture Programme would soon be launched to encourage the youth to go into medium and large scale commercial farming. The youth would be encouraged to form cooperatives to enable them access credit facilities and other farming inputs.

Vice President Mahama reiterated that the government would establish a Sheanut Development Board to manage the affairs of the sheanut industry and also establish a sheanut processing factory which is likely to be sited at Buipe in the Central Gonja District. He said government would soon establish a teacher training institution in Bole to train more teachers to serve the Northern Region and also promised to build a boys' hostel for the Bole Senior High School.

Mr. Stephen Sumani Nayina, the Northern Regional Minister, said the NDC government was committed to continuing with all the good policies, projects and programmes initiated by the previous regime. He said under the District Wide Assistance Project a number of projects including the construction of a five- unit police barracks at Abrumasi, the construction of one teacher accommodation at Wambong, surgical theatre with maternity ward at Sawla and the construction and furnishing of a girls' hostel at Damongo Health Nursing Assistants Training School.

Bolewura Amankwa Gbeadese II, Paramount Chief of the Bole Traditional Area, appealed to the government to post more doctors and other paramedics to the area.

He also appealed for the provision of a small town water supply to Bole, saying that the system which was developed for a population of 6,000 was no longer capable of serving the population of 16,000 people.

Alhaji Ahmed Ewura, National President of the GYA, enumerated some of the challenges facing the association as lack of infrastructural development in Gonjaland and the inability to harness its well endowed natural resources such as water bodies, tourist sites and the lime and gold deposits at Buipe and Dakuripe and Bombire to the advantage of Gonjaland.

Alhaji Ewura commended the Sawla_Tuna-Kalba District for its spectacular performance in the 2007 and 2008 Basic Education Certificate Examination.

The results saw an improvement in the overall performance of the district making it move from the 44th to the 16 position in the nationwide rankings and subsequently emerging the best district in the three northern regions.

GYA elected a five-member executive with Mr. Saddique Bakari Nayeri as National President and Mr. Yussif Ibrahim as secretary to run the affairs of the association for the next two years. Vice President Mahama, a member of the association gave GH¢2,000 during an appeal for funds to help run its affairs. 13 April 09