New region for northern Volta ?

Accra, April 15, GNA- Osabarima Antwi Agyei V, Chief of Okadjakrom in the Jasikan District of the Volta Region, has pledged to support any plan by the Government to create a new region to cover the northern part of the Volta Region to accelerate the development of the area.

He however, advised that even though it was the constitutional prerogative of the President to undertake such an exercise, efforts should be made to solicit the views of the affected people. In an interview with the GNA in Accra at the weekend, Osabarima Agyei said: "Any decision to create a new region for the people in the northern part of the Volta Region should not aggravate the already administrative and socio-economic problems being faced by the people but to propel them for progress."

He therefore, advised the Government to consider the demographic, geographical and socio-economic conditions of the area and to effectively consult the chiefs and people before implementing any such scheme.

Osabarima Agyei, who is also the Twafohene of the Buem Traditional Area, said the Government should be prepared to invest human and material resources in any plan to create a new region to ensure realistic development for the northern part of the Volta. He reminded government that the people of the Northern part of the region in advocating the creation of a new region did not cite ethnic considerations but advanced socio-economic and administrative considerations to support their request.

Osabarima Agyei urged the Government to transform a strategic settlement into a new regional capital if any plan to crate a new region became operational instead of using existing infrastructure and already developed towns as the basis for any proposal.

He said any attempt to make an already developed town in the southern part of the Volta as the capital of a new region covering the northern Volta would defeat the good intention of the Government. Osabarima Agyei observed that Hohoe and Kpandu, developed towns, were for instance closer to Ho, the Volta Regional capital but remote to the Northern part of the region unlike Jasikan, Kadjebi, Worawora, Krachi and Nkwanta, major towns situated in the north.

Osabarima Agyei noted, " Since my childhood till today the perception of the people of the Northern part of the Volta Region has been that development in the region starts from the south and ends at Hohoe."

He said it would therefore be unfair for the development of northern Volta to start from Hohoe, knowing very well the role capital towns play in the development of an area.

Osabarima Agyei noted that considering the map of the Region, assuming the stretch of land was divided into two equal parts, Hohoe, Ho and Kpandu, all major towns in the region would fall under the South. The Chief said he would be surprised if for instance Hohoe or Kpandu were included in any proposal to create a new region for northern Volta.

Osabarima Agyei explained that even though the towns were already developed they were geographically and administratively far from the north and therefore, inappropriate to be made the pivot for the development of northern Volta.

He asked, "Why would a group of people in an already relatively developed area be made to join a poorly developed area that government wants to transform into an administrative region for accelerated development? "

The creation of a new region to cover the northern part of the Volta Region had been agitating the minds of some concerned people from that area for quite some time.

The idea again gained currency in 2002, during the first term of office of the New Patriotic Party when an appeal was made to the Government to create a new region in the Volta Region to be known as the Oti Region.

The petitioners included eminent chiefs and citizens and some presiding and Assembly members of the various district assemblies, including Jasikan, Kadjebi, Nkwanta and Krachi, who proposed Jasikan, the capital town of Jasikan district as the regional capital at that time.