Creation of Districts is not conterminous with traditional councils-Vice President

Vice President John Dramani Mahama, on Friday observed that the creation of metropolitan, municipalities and district assemblies are not in accordance with the number of traditional councils in the country.

He added: “We have about 800 traditional areas in the country and therefore cannot create districts for all these… areas at the same time. “

Vice President Mahama made the observation when he addressed the Inter- Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralization meeting (IMCC) in Accra.

The IMCC, which was chaired by the Vice President would outline the different sectoral programmes and priorities with a view to finding commonalities and chart the way forward to improve local governance.

Vice President Mahama appealed to the traditional areas that have not benefitted from the recent creation of new assemblies to continue to lend their unflinching support for the local generation of funds to facilitate the execution of development plans.

He advised the citizenry not to politicise the creation of assemblies, since they are done in accordance with Local Government laid down procedures and rules.

The Vice President said, the IMCC would empower government to effectively carry out decentralisation and devolution to enhance independence and rapid growth and development at the grassroots.

“This is the time we have to allow the people at the local levels to take their own destinies in their own hands by giving them the latitude to undertake their own development projects,” he added.

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said, although the meeting was not the first, it represented government’s will to promote coherent and coordinated approach to operationalising local level development for Ghanaians.

He said the ordinary Ghanaian was expecting good and affordable health care, education for their children, effective waste disposal, motorable roads leading to main markets, efficient value addition to agricultural products and a reasonably secure environment for them and their families.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo noted that, though the Local Government Sector had achieved a great deal, “working together will ensure that we achieve much more. We shall also benefit from the input of the best brains available to us, nationally and… internationally.”**