Savannah youth protest against decision to disperse regional departments

The youth of the newly created Savannah Region under the auspices of the Damongo Youth Parliament took to the streets of the regional capital to register their displeasure over the decision by the government to disperse the regional departments of the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council.

Presenting the petition to the Savannah Regional Minister, Adam Salifu Braimah, the speaker of the Damongo Youth Parliament who doubles as the assembly member for the Canteen electoral area, Ananpansah B. Abraham emphasized that for easy coordination and effective/efficient administration, the coordinating departments should be located in Damongo the regional capital.

The youth in the petition to President Nana Akuffo Addo stated that developing Damongo as the pride of Gonjaland like Tamale, Kumasi, Accra, Koforidua etc does not take away anything from the other districts in the region.

These Regional capitals according to the petition to the President by the youth gained the prominence they have today as a result of the concentration of regional departments which propelled growing population with the population attracting investors who will want to take advantage of the numbers to invest in the region.

The mentioned also in the petition that the disadvantages of decentralizing of the departments far outweigh the advantages especially in the Savannah Region with its dispersed settlements.

The emphasized further that the various regional departments are only to serve as coordinating agencies, thus, coordinating the development within the region and dispersing these coordinating agencies of the Regional Coordinating Council will increase the cost of administration as the departments will have to communicate and share relevant documents, resources and information on a regular basis.

They are again craving for more districts in the newly created Savannah Region together with resourcing the existing ones to take charge of development by way of practical decentralization and went ahead to find out the criteria that was used by the Savanah Regional Coordinating Council to determine how the Regional Agricultural Office is best fit to be sited at Bole, the Regional Health Directorate sited in Daboya and Feeder Roads in Salaga.

The group further demanded better involvement and participation of the people before arriving at any decision the concerns them.

The youth therefore in the petition to the President believes that the decentralised departments are just structures responsible for coordinating the development and constitutes not development in themselves.

Clouded in red and holding placards with the inscription ” Regional Capital Without Coordinating Departments Is Meaningless”, ”Mr President This Is Not The Region The Yagbonwura Asked For” etc.

Receiving the petition, Savannah Regional Minister Hon. Adam Salifu Braimah thanked the youth for the peaceful conduct in presenting the petition to him for onward submission to the President of Ghana.

He assured them that as the representative of the President in the region, he will present the petition to President Nana Addo but was quick to remind them that the decentralization of the coordinating offices to the various districts is not limited to the Savannah Region but a policy that cuts across all the newly created regions.

The youth chief of Damongo, Nyiribiwura Yakubu Jaga who was with the youth during the presentation said he was very happy about the turnout and will forever be grateful to the leadership of the Damongo Youth Parliament for helping push this beautiful agenda of concentrating the departments in the regional capital since that will enhance development instead of the scattering of the offices.