President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

Creation of new regions is Ghanaian Agenda — Akufo-Addo

Mary Anane-Amponsah Oct - 23 - 2018 , 13:58

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has once again waded into the controversy surrounding the impending referendum on the proposed creation of an Oti region from the Volta Region, stating that the call by some chiefs in the southern part of the region to be allowed to vote has no backing of the Constitution.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Energy Minister, Mr John-Peter Amewu, at the climax of the 2018 Agbamevor (Kente Festival), the President indicated that there appeared to be a contention that the whole region had the right to vote in the referendum to decide on the creation of the region but ‘I am afraid neither history nor normal practice backs this argument, nor supported by our Constitution’.

The President noted that the Constitution provided an important guide to the conduct of the exercise which dictates would be scrupulously followed, stating unequivocally that, “this exercise is not an NPP or NDC exercise, indeed both NDC and NPP have agreed on it. It is not an Akan versus Ewe exercise.”

While wandering why similar demands were not coming from other regions earmarked for the same exercise, President Akufo-Addo entreated all, especially chiefs in the region, to be circumspect in the choice of language as they pursued their arguments, adding that “whatever the outcome, we shall remain one nation, Ghana with an intrinsically bounded destiny.”

The President, who expressed his dismay at what he described as ‘deliberate peddling of falsehood’ that had characterised the concerted campaign against the possible creation of the proposed Oti region, maintained that the exercise was neither partisan nor tribal but rather a Ghana agenda geared towards rapid socio-economic development of all parts of the country.

The Kente Festival

Saturday’s grand durbar held at the GRA Customs Training School Park at Kpetoe saw indigenes of Agotime and a host of dignitaries in various shades of the Kente fabric to match the occasion.

The President called for the needed reverence for the locally woven fabric, which according to him, had become the defining symbol of not only Ghana but the entirety of Africa and the black race as a whole.

“Time was when the Kente was strictly a royal cloth reserved only for most special occasions and the elite of our societies. Today, Kente is more widely available to all of us, but this has not cheapened it in any way and the Kente has retained its beauty and elegance,” he stated.

He also reiterated the government’s resolve to fix deplorable roads in the region in order to facilitate brisk economic activities and easy access to tourist attraction sites in the region.