Aliu urges chiefs to release land for farming

Gomoa Abaasa (Central Region) - Vice President Aliu Mahama has asked traditional authorities to release land for their people to engage in farming and other income generating activities to stop their migration to urban areas in search of jobs.

He said the government was determined to stop the high incidence of rural-urban drift by providing quality education, good road networks, clinics, electricity, potable water and other basic infrastructure in line with its policy of Urban Renewal.

Vice President Mahama was addressing the chief and people of Gomoa Abaasa in the Gomoa District as part of his tour of Central Region, which he described as an Outreach Programme to explain the government's policies to those at the grassroots level.

It was also to inspect projects and elicit their feedback to be able to address their needs in the formulation of development programmes in line with the policy of good governance. He said the Special Presidential Initiatives on cassava; salt, oil palm and other commercial projects were aimed at providing jobs at the grassroots level and, consequently, urged the chiefs to make land available so that their people would take advantage of them to improve their standard of living.

He said when their incomes are raised they would be able to give quality education to their children to break the cycle of poverty in families since education was the key to personal development, prosperity and sustainable national development.

"The government has, therefore, prioritised education and developed a programme to improve the structure and learning facilities of schools, provide furniture for every pupil, give incentives to teachers, among other facilities, to ensure that quality education is provided at the lowest level of the community," he said.

Vice President Mahama also addressed similar durbars at Gomoa Lome, Gomoa Obuase, Gomoa Afransi and other communities, and urged the people to support the government's agenda to lead the nation to prosperity.

He also met members of Muslim communities and prayed with some of them. The communities received the Vice President Mahama and his entourage with great enthusiasm as their chiefs explained that it was the first time they had been visited by a sitting Vice President.

The chiefs commended the government for the programmes, so far initiated in their communities to renovate old schools or build new ones, rehabilitate roads, provide clinics and other infrastructure, saying these were indications that the government was interested in improving their welfare.

However, most of them still had a long list of requests, which were common in nature, particularly the complaint about the poor quality of transformers of those with electricity, which they said had destroyed their electrical gadgets.

The Vice President assured them that some of their problems would be addressed immediately, while others would be met in due course. Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Lands and Forestry, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Health, K.T. Hammond, Deputy Minster of Energy, Dr Majeed Haroun, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Alex Sofo, Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Central Regional Minister Isaac Edumadze and other government officials, accompanied the Vice President. The three-day visit ended on Friday.