We’re not creating ethnic regions - Dan Botwe

The Minister of Regional Reorganisation and Development, Mr Dan Botwe has said that government is not in the business of creating ethnic regions in the country.

According to him, government is creating political administrative regions, and that the traditional authorities must not worry about boundaries falling into other regions.

He assured Ghanaians that no kingdom or ethnic head will lose his authority because one area of his jurisdiction moves into another region.

“There are people who are in another region who owe allegiance to chiefs in other regions. In fact, in Volta Region, I was told that there are chiefs in Togo who owe allegiance to chiefs in Ghana, and when they are installing chiefs, they come to Ghana, when the chief in Ghana is having a festival, they come and pay homage, so, if international boundary does not stop allegiance to stools or skin, how can administrative boundaries stop it?” he quizzed in his closing remarks during a one-day sensitisation forum at the Radach Lodge and Conference center in Tamale on Wednesday, 7 March 2018.

The workshop brought together personnel from the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the Information Service Department (ISD) and journalists in the Northern Region to inform them about what the ministry has done thus far in respect to the creation of additional regions in the country.

Mr Botwe noted that there has been discussions and deliberations since May 2017 among stakeholders and disclosed further that open discussions have been organised between the chiefs and people of Dagbon, Gonja and Mamprugu traditional areas on the subject matter.

Present at the forum were the Northern Regional Minister, Salifu Saeed and his deputy and MP for Bunkprugu, Solomon Boar and the Northern Regional Chief Director, Alhaji Issahaku Alhassan.

For his part, Mr Saeed urged the interested parties to cooperate fully to ensure the process is carried out successfully. He said the region is vast and has huge potential and, therefore, there is the need to divide it for effective administration and development to take effect.