Sunyani Aug. 14, GNA - Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye Marfo, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, has urged regional and district security councils to widen the horizon for social justice, provide social amenities and economic opportunities to re-awaken the sense of communality among the people.
He was opening a two-day orientation programme for members of regional, metropolitan, municipal and district security councils in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions in Sunyani on behalf of President John Evans Atta Mills.
The programme was under the theme: "Understanding and appreciation for interface between security and development at the metropolitan, municipal and district level".
Present were Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Lt Col Larry Gbevlo (rtd), National Security Co-ordinator, Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Eastern Regional Minister and Mr. Kofi Opoku-Manu, Ashanti Regional Minister.
Mr. Nyamekye Marfo said it was the expectation of President Mills that at the end of the various sessions, participants would share a common understanding that the security councils "do not exist merely or even principally to grapple with chieftaincy disputes, tribal conflicts or armed robberies".
The Regional Minister stressed that the traditional thinking that the term "national security" frightened people and portrayed those associated with it as sub humans or super humans had changed over the years.
"Again, in this traditional context, the term reminds one of a constant challenge or threat to territorial integrity and the extent to which people in a defined territory, with attributes of sovereignty decide their destiny", he said.
Mr. Nyamekye Marfo emphasized that this traditional thinking had changed particularly under the government of the National Democratic congress (NDC), saying that now clarity was emerging.
"Under the NDC, national security should be better understood as a challenge to holding on to a consciousness of a people in a nation with a common destiny", he added.
The Regional Minister stressed that the national security thrived on the 1992 national constitution working to the satisfaction of all and expressed the government's commitment to the creation of opportunities for the people to deepen their faith in the constitution.
"Without opportunities for economic development and social advancement in the rural areas, our national security will continue to be under siege", he added.
Mr. Nyamekye Marfo stated that the planning and implementation of development programmes in rural areas should be the primary concern of the security councils and the efforts of the assemblies should not only be limited to the provision of markets and toilets.
The assemblies should also be involved in the production of goods and services at the local level. They should begin to own productive enterprises, provide social amenities and revive the communal spirit that had in the past been responsible for development in the rural areas, the regional minister said.
He emphasized that the Better Ghana Agenda of the government should be more manifested at the district level where the district security councils were expected to play a leading role.
"Leadership should be provided within the context of the statutes and local legislation in the form of bye laws", the regional minister said, adding, the youth who were assets for a better Ghana, should be mobilized for increased agricultural production.
Mr. Nyamekye Marfo said the government expected that participants would at the end of the programme recognize that the essence of security councils at the national, regional, municipal and district levels was to offer leadership that would get things done.
Leadership at the local level is the critical requirement in the crusade for a Better Ghana, he added.
Alhaji E.A. Mahama, National Co-ordinator, National Youth in Agriculture Programme, in a presentation on the roles of the DCE/MCE and the District Assembly in the Youth in Agriculture Programme, explained that the programme was meant to encourage the youth to appreciate farming as an economic venture and a life time vocation.
He said the programme targeted to offer employment to the youth, who constitute 33 per cent of the nation's population, to reduce the crime rate, as well as the rural-urban migration.
The co-ordinator noted that the programme initiated in 1999 by the then NDC government faced challenges in 2007, including late land preparation and inadequate inputs.
Alhaji Mahama said crops for the 2010 season included maize grain, seed maize, seed rice, rice grain, sorghum, Soya bean and vegetables, notably tomato and onion for which the government was motivating the youth with adequate input supply and fertilizer subsidy to cultivate.
He stressed that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives had an enormous role to play to make the programme succeed.
The participants would be taken through topics including; the role and focus of district/municipal and metropolitan security councils in the Better Ghana Agenda, leadership at the district level and the effective use of bye laws for the Better Ghana Agenda at the district level.
Other topics are; resource mobilization at the district, municipal and metropolitan level and the District Assembly Common Fund.
