Northerners Are Their Own Enemies – Minister

The Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Charles Bintim says until Northerners abandon ethnic conflicts, inferiority complex and tribal divisions, development would continue to elude the region. He regretted that "even Northerners who are professionals look down on their own regions disdainfully and with disregard, so how can people who do not come from the area be encouraged to come and serve the North"?

Mr Bintim, who was speaking at a two-day Northern Sector Health Forum, organised by the Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council in collaboration with the Regional Directorate of Health Service, attributed lack of health personnel in the three northern regions to the lukewarm attitudes of most Northerners towards their own regions.

"Although comparatively, the Northern sector has less professionals such as doctors and nurses the few ones shun their own regions chiefly because the North is not a potential area of amassing wealth by professionals."

Mr Bintim said if the few professionals from the North would come home and serve their people, it would go a long way to encourage professional non-Northerners to accept postings to the North.

The Deputy Regional Minister suggested to district assemblies in the three northern regions to consider sponsoring students at the tertiary levels who would be made to sign bonds and come back to work at the districts on completion. ''We ourselves have a greater responsibility to encourage and retain our brothers and sisters to work for their own siblings", he said.

The Health Forum among other things called on the government to give special treatment to health professionals who accept postings to deprived areas in the country especially in the Northern sector.

It also called on the government to re-introduce the Enrolled Nurses' Training into the three Northern Regions so as to train more nurses to take care of the acute shortage of nurses in the sector.