B T Baba charts path for development

Talensi Member of Parliament (MP) Benson Tongo Baba has taken the bold initiative to chart the path of employment and development to the benefit of all in the Constituency.

After procuring 86 water pumping machines of which 36 had been distributed to support dry season farming, the MP is appealing to the Minister for Roads and Highways to come to the aid of the people to improve the road network to make the area more accessible.

Of particular concern to the MP is the he Zuarungu-Kpatia- Sheaga stretch of road, which he said the culverts had caved in.

Mr Baba made the appeal in an interview with journalists, in Accra, outlining his development agenda, his achievements and challenges of the first six months of his coming into office.

“My main aim is to satisfy the clamour for development, create employment and reduce poverty, which is widespread and the biggest challenge in the Northern part of Ghana. The process of connecting the area to the national grid is very dear to my heart, and I was happy when the poles arrived in the area just a day after my inauguration.

“The contractor is on site; and we are working to make the area very attractive by pursuing an agricultural policy that makes dry season farming attractive to reduce the migration from the North to the South in search of non-existent jobs,” Mr Baba said.

He mentioned some of the 22 communities, with a population of about 100,000 as Pwalugu, Balungu, Winkogo, Tongo, Sheaga and Tindongo and Duusi, and repeated his position to attend to the needs of the constituents without party colours.

“I’m MP for all; and all the development projects will continue,” Mr Baba said.

According to the MP, he had ordered six incubators to support a guinea fowl project, of which 8000 birds are to be hatched in a month.

After making a deposit for two tractors which would be ready by next April, Mr Baba assured the constituents that he was making a follow up to get a minimum of 20 tractors to serve the area.

With strong confidence to team up with the people to develop the area, Mr Baba, who is also former head of the Ghana Prisons Service, and former Chairman of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), dwelt on his experience of being a farmer, who has farms in the Eastern Region of Ghana, and pledged to make agriculture top priority in the area.

“Impossible is nothing,” he said.

Mr Baba spoke of other social interventions as having procured 400 wellington boots to be distributed to farmers to protect themselves from snake bites during season farming, adding that more than 500 people who had taken to dry farming had been supported with knapsacks for the control of weeds and pests.

The MP gave thanks to Almighty God for coursing the White and Black Volta rivers in the Constituency, and promised to take advantage of them to support agriculture.

The former Sports Administrator said he had procured and distributed 100 footballs to support the Better Talensi Football, of which very attractive prizes would be distributed to the best four teams during a tournament in the next Easter season.

Mr Baba recognised that there was a pool of sports talents, especially in long distance running and announced the Better Talensi Cross Country would also take place soon during the Easter celebrations.

On his contribution to the development of education, Mr Baba said, at least he had supported 105 students at the tertiary level, and quite a few at the senior high school level.