Dep. Minister Thumb-Ups Action Year

The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. Kale Caesario, has noted that the action year that President John Evans Mills has declared is fully on course and if the example of the action in the Upper West Region is anything to go by, then the 2012 general election is a done deal for the NDC as a party in power.

Mr. Kale Caesar was speaking in an exclusive interview to your most reliable source of news, The Catalyst, in Wa, the Upper West regional capital.

Mr. Caesar said it is not a mistake that Ghana has been touted to be the fastest growing economy in the world as the achievements of the NDC are there for all to see as a shining example within the first three years of coming into power of the ruling party. He said in the Upper West Region, the Atta Mills government has put in place giant initiatives, which the people of the region will forever be grateful to the government for.

He said in the educational front, the government has almost wiped out schools under trees with the massive provision of educational infrastructure across the various districts in the region. He said the government is putting up an ultra-modern regional library which is at the point of completion.

The government, he said, has also provided four additional senior high schools in the region with the Sisala East and Wa East having such a facility for the first time in the history of the region. He said within the last three years, the education sector alone have been given over three hundred infrastructural development projects spread across the region. The government has also given out school uniforms and exercise books to many schools in the region.

The deputy regional minister said for the first time the government is giving free mattresses and beds to all first year senior high school students in the region, something he said is unprecedented. He said during the recent visit of the members of Council of State to the region, the members were very happy about the state of educational infrastructure in the region and openly expressed their satisfaction on what the government has so far done.

Mr Kale said the NDC government is tackling the road sector in the region with all the seriousness it deserves. For example he said, the government has awarded on contract a number of roads, which include the Nadowli-Hamile road, which is currently ongoing, the Wa-Sagu-Hen road, a stretch of about 30 km is currently under construction and the Tumu-Sisili road is also under construction and the road from Navrongo to join the Sisili section to the Upper West Region is also being worked at.

He said it is unfortunate that work at the regional hospital is currently stalled, but he said the government is doing everything humanly possible to get the contractors back to site for work to resume.

According to him, since 1970, the region has been yearning for polyclinics in the region. He said thankfully the government of the NDC is providing about five polyclinics to be sited at various points in Babile in the Lawra-Nandom district, Wechau in Wa West, Ko near Nandom, Lambusie in the Lambusie Karnie district and Hen in the Jirapa district are at the completion stage to cater for the health needs of the people.

Mr. Kale said it is unfortunate that the Upper West region has sons and daughters who are trained doctors, but said the region lacks medical professionals. He said out of 25 doctors that the region needs, only four are at post. It did not therefore make any difference when the doctors went on a strike. This was as a result of the tireless efforts the doctors in the region work to save the situation. He commended doctors in the region for a good job done.

He said the assistance the government has given to agriculture this year coupled with heavy rainfall in the region, the region expects bumper harvests, adding that the bloc farming and the youth in agriculture policy of the NDC government has given true meaning to farming as far as the average farmer in the region is concerned.

Mr. Kale Caesario questioned the spurious nature of some surveys in the country which seeks to give the impression that if elections were conducted today, the opposition will carry the day. He said some of these surveys and opinion polls are not done with the right approach as some of them are under the sponsorship of the opposition.

The deputy minister said the seeming division in the ruling NDC is not a guarantee that the NDC is not winning the 2012 elections. He said the campaign of the NDC in the impending elections will be issues based, and not based on insults and personal attacks.