The president’s stadium promise and the priorities of New Edubiase

By Emmanuel Agyemfra Boateng

“We’ve been conditioned to think only politicians can solve our problems. But at some point, maybe we will wake up and recognize that it was politicians who created our problems”-Dr. Ben Carson

The President in his State of the Nation’s Address on Thursday mentioned he was going to build the people of the Adansi South District Capital New Edubiase, a stadium.

“In addition to the Construction of the Cape Coast stadium,which has been completed, we have completed the drawings and bills of quantities for the construction of the New Edubiase Sports stadium”

Fortunately, a Non-governmental Organization I work for, Youth Alliance for Development have an office in New Edubiase and the number of heart breaking youth related issues that we get every blessed day is sad.

An ECOWAS directive on mining called the Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) gives a community power to accept or oppose to a mining company that is about starting if the impact will affect the community at the long run.

Ghana, under President John Atta Mills signed to this ECOWAS law in 2010, from then communities and civil society groups like WACAM and Center for Social Impact Studies have been able to stop mining companies from operating.

There should such a law that will allow government to meet a community before implementing a project.

Now back to my topic, did the District Chief Executive and the two Members of Parliament for the District in a town hall meeting, ask the people of Adansi South if they really needed a sports stadium?

The good people of Ghana should be shown a paper or tape from the District that suggested the people willingly wanted a stadium

PRIORITIES

New Edubiase is only the district capital. It is surrounded by many towns and villages.

The Adansi South District has only one Fire Tender, but looking at its political demarcations, it should have two. There should be an out-station at Akrofuom which would’ve served the towns and villages around it.

Most of the Gari we enjoy here in Ghana come from the Adansi South District but they can’t even boast of a Gari processing factory Cassava that would’ve absorbed the teeming unemployed youth in the District.

Most villages and towns in the Adansi South District are not connected to the National Grid, as I write! Yes, they have no light!

The rate at which Teenage Pregnancy keeps on rising in the Adansi South District is alarming, which needs immediate attention.

According to the Public Health Directorate in the District, they recorded 380 Teenage Pregnancies in the first half of 2015. These were young girls were between the ages of 12 to 20 years! Illegal abortions among young girls in the District are open secrets.

Some of the unemployed youth in the District, resort to Lotto staking and drinking. Politicians come back every 4 years to use them for their selfish political gains. They need a vocational center or an entrepreneurship center that will train and latter give them jobs no one can take back.

How many people in New Edubiase are football lovers? How many of them follow Edubiase Football club to even Obuasi to watch their matches?

The questions are too many but I hope the President can have a second thought about this issue.

I still don’t understand why the District Chief Executive and the two Members of Parliament couldn’t lobby for a social intervention programme that would’ve gone a long way to help the District.

This District needs real SOCIAL INTERVENTIONS not a Stadium which cannot be managed by the National Sports Council.

The President should please reconsider his decision of building them a Stadium.

This is like a mining company that built a school for a community, which was badly in need of a clinic, because a village not too far away had a school where their children attended.

Thanks to a youth oriented NGO in Adansi South, Youth Alliance for Development (YAD) which is doing all what it can to fight Teenage Pregnancy with their ant-teenage pregnancy campaigns.