Former President and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate for 2020, John Dramani Mahama, has urged President Nana Akufo-Addo to meet the developmental needs of the newly formed North East Region.
The former President is on a “thank you tour” of northern areas to express his gratitude for their support during the 2020 elections.
Mr. Mahama remarked at a meeting of party leaders and supporters in Nalerigu, “You cannot simply establish regions in name.” The regions must be deserving of the title “regions.” And infrastructure is what defines a region.”
“If you travel to Tamale, you will realize you are in the Northern Region. If you travel to Bolga, you will realize that you are in the Upper East Region. If you come to Nalerigu, you will see a shadow of a region,” Mahama said, adding that “we don’t only need regional borders to be redrawn; we need regional infrastructure so that when you arrive, you would say yeah, this is the North East Region.”
The former President was dissatisfied with several NDC-initiated projects in the area, which he said had been abandoned by the Akufo-Addo administration.
“I went and met the Nayiri, and before that, the Gambagarana and Gambaga Imam, and the constant theme is that when is this government going to undertake the projects that the NDC administration left unfinished?” he remarked.
A new location for the Gambaga College of Education, Community Day Senior High Schools, and the Nalerigu-Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri route are among the projects that have stagnated.
Former President Mahama also criticized the region’s growing number of armed robberies.
He highlighted poor morale and a lack of logistics for police to combat crime as contributing factors to the increasing insecurity and urged the administration to solve the issue as soon as possible.
“The administration should focus its attention on the security situation in the country’s north. Without security, there can be no development or prosperity.”
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