Bawku East does not intend to change name - Deputy Minister

Bawku (Upper East) 15 Feb, '99 -

Hajia Fati Seidu, Deputy Upper East Regional Minister says the government has no intention to change the name of the Bawku East District. Such a change of name cannot be done without consultations with Members of Parliament (MP) from the area and the district assembly, who are the people's own chosen representatives, she said. Hajia Fati was addressing an emergency meeting of elders and opinion leaders of various ethnic groups in the district at Bawku at the weekend.

The meeting was prompted by a publication in the "Daily Graphic" of Friday, January 29, in which the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Mr Cletus Avoka, was purported to have made certain utterances regarding the change of names of the Bawku East and Bawku West districts, during a meeting of the Northern regional branch of the Kusasi Youth Association in Tamale. Mr Avoka, who is also the MP of the Bawku West constituency was reported to have advised the Bawku East district assembly to petition the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development to have the name Bawku East changed to Agolle. He was alleged to have said that the government has already consented to a similar request by the Bawku West district, whose name is to be changed to Kusa-Toende district.

The Minister's statement is believed to have caused considerable consternation among the other local ethnic groups, who viewed it as an attempt to perpetrate Kusasi domination in the area, hence the convening of the meeting to dispel such anxieties. Hajia Fati, who is also MP for Bawku Central told the opinion leaders that under the government's decentralisation policy, the Bawku West and Bawku

East districts are now separate political entities.

Therefore, decisions taken by either one of the assemblies have no bearing whatsoever on the other. She reiterated the government's commitment to involve the people at the grassroots in decision-making and said discussions on an important issue such as changing the name of the district would not have been held elsewhere without the knowledge of the district assembly or the MPs. "As your chosen representative in Parliament, I am here to serve your best interest and assure you that the government has no such intentions", she added.