Municipal Chief Executive explains siting of school

Mr. Gordon Kwaku Asubonteng, the Dormaa Municipal Chief Executive, has said consultations and consensus building for development at the local level was becoming a development challenge due to the attitude, conduct, and the awkward approach given to development issues by some chiefs.

Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Ahogono, he said he had asked the chiefs of Danyame and Nsesereso to come up with a decision on the appropriate site on which to build a Community Day Senior High School.

He said the two chiefs failed to agree on and stakeholders including the Technical Director of Education, the Municipal Director of Education and other chiefs in Dormaa–Ahenkro noticed the two chiefs were unable to come to an agreement.

The stakeholders later decided, after consultations, to site the school at Danyame because they saw Danyame as a central point which could attract students from neighbouring communities wishing to further their secondary education.

“The Chiefs of Asunsu Number One and Abonsrakrom all agreed for the school to be put up at Danyame when they were all consulted,” he said.

He said he did not use discretionary powers to influence the siting of the school in Danyame when he knew the exact area to locate the school could become a bone of contention between Danyame and Nsesereso.

Mr Asubonteng said the decision to site the school at Danyame was borne out of the need to seek stakeholder consultations and the motivation to bring uniformity in development to all areas of the municipality and not out of mischief or ill motive for the chief and people of Nsesereso,” he said.

“It’s absolutely not an issue of a deliberate attempt to marginalize and discriminate against the Nsesereso community in terms of development, since it’s also under my jurisdiction. People should understand this issue well and not to take us out of context,” he added.