Government urged to fulfil Nkrumah’s dream
The Government has been urged to fulfil Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of making the three northern regions the bread basket of the nation.
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The Founder and Head Pastor of the Holy Universal Mission Church at Sokoban-Timpom, Prophet Gabriel Ntim, who made the call, said such a project would not only help the nation to protect its food security, but also export some of the foodstuffs to neighbouring countries.
This, he said, would help increase the nation’s foreign exchange, and reduce its unemployment menace.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on Dr Nkrumah’s birthday in Kumasi, he said there was the need for government to conduct a research into a particular set of crops which could do very well in the three regions and give the needed financial and technical support to make it work.
He said as a nation, ”there was the need for us to set our priorities right by avoiding politicising everything by setting targets on certain development projects that stand the chance of making the nation develop quickly and creating the opportunity for the nation’s natural resources to be put to good use”.
Prophet Ntim said although Dr Nkrumah left behind a legacy which needed to be spearheaded or given the needed support, due to politics and other reasons, most of these ideas which stood the chance of turning the nation’s economy round had been jettisoned at the expense of the nation’s development.
He then appealed to the government and other development agencies in the country to emulate Dr Nkrumah’s visions and aspirations which, when brought on board the nation’s development agenda, could hasten the nation’s pace of development as well as better the lives of the people.
He, therefore, commended President John Mahama for implementing the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), which aims at co-ordinating a comprehensive development agenda for the northern savannah ecological zone in Ghana.
The Head Pastor called on the government to add more modules to the current ones, making up the SADA projects since there was more to be done which could pool a lot of youth in the southern sector of the country to go and work in the savannah zone, which in the long run, would develop the northern sector as well.
Prophet Ntim said any such project stood the chance of enhancing the capacities and fortunes of peasant farmers; creating jobs for thousands of graduates who would work as managers for the various segments, and for the local people; and providing other services in areas where there were farm projects.
He added that any attempt at developing the agricultural sector in the three northern regions would not only enhance development in the three regions but could also reduce the rural urban migration as well as the exodus of most youth from the northern part of the country to seek non-existing greener pastures in the south.
“It is high time certain crucial issues such as education, health and agriculture were left in the hands of specialist or departments to avoid politicians doing politics with it leading to the nation losing a lot from such a practice”, he added.
Prophet Ntim called on the government to desist from sidelinig members of the opposition parties when it came to appointing people to manage the nation’s development programmes and institutions.
By Felix A. Baidoo/Daily Graphic/Ghana