A businessman has urged the people of the three northern regions to let the deprivations in the area be the driving force to unite them for the development of the north.
Alhaji Yusif Ibrahim, the Chief Executive of the Dar es Salaam Group of Companies, launching a 256-page book, titled, "Regionalism and Public Policy in Northern Ghana," in Accra said poverty and illiteracy were the enemies of the people.
The book exposes the three northern regions as the most deprived and marginalized in the country. It is written by Professor Yakubu Saaka, a Former Deputy Foreign Minister and a professor at the Oberlin College in Oberlin Ohio, USA.
The book further seeks to explain how the regions acquired their poor status and why underdevelopment in the area still persists. Alhaji Ibrahim said the North has been disadvantaged in education, industrial development and wealth generation activities adding, "it is now time for this situation to change."
He said the book brought out the causes of some of the problems facing the area and how they have made the people less privileged. He called on people from the three northern regions to come together and help solve the problem.
Professor Saaka, who has published extensively on African politics, said readers would find the book useful and informative, especially on the North. He said the book, which cost 200,000 cedis each was started in 1994 and was completed late last year.
Professor Saaka disclosed that all monies raised from the auctioning of the book would be used to publish more copies for educational institutions and libraries in the country.
Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, a former Defence Minister, bemoaned the practice where teachers from the North refuse to teach in schools there, thereby depriving the young ones from getting quality education.
"Effort need to be made by people of the regions to improve educational standards in the area" he reiterated. He said the present predicament of the North was created by colonial rulers and it was time it was corrected.
He urged northern students from various institutions to form associations that would encompass all northerners instead of ethnic groups. The first five copies of the book were auctioned for 7.1 million cedis.
