The government is consulting with the chiefs and opinion leaders in all the six newly created regions to ensure the peaceful selection of regional capitals, the Minister of Regional Reorganisation and Development, Mr Dan Botwe, has said.
He said chiefs in the respective regions were to discuss among themselves and build consensus on which of the towns would be their capital, after which the proposed capital would be presented to the appropriate authority for approval.
He, therefore, urged residents of the newly created Oti, Ahafo, Bono East, Western North, North East and Savannah regions to remain calm ahead of the selection process, giving an assurance that the outcome of the consultation process would reflect their interest.
Interview
Mr Botwe said this in an interview after making a presentation at the End Time Revival Centre of the Assemblies of God Church in Accra yesterday.
"The President will issue a Constitutional Instrument (CI), after which the administrative place of work in the regions will be announced.
"It is solely the prerogative of the President to determine when the CI will be issued, but we do know that broader consultations with the various chiefs in the new regions are ongoing to inform the decision on which of the towns will be made the capitals,” he added.
Background
In October 2017, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in accordance with Article 5 (2) of the Constitution, inaugurated a nine-member Commission of Enquiry, chaired by Mr Justice S.A. Brobbey, to look into the request for the creation of new regions and give recommendations.
The commission, after holding nationwide consultations, urged the government to create the six administrative regions.
Following its report presented to the President in June 2018, the Electoral Commission (EC), in December 2018, conducted a referendum in the affected regions to seek the approval of the people.
According to the summary of the results provided by the EC on December 28, 2018, the requirements — 50 per cent of registered voters voting and 80 per cent of the valid voters voting yes — which made the results valid were met in all the regions.
The President, however, is yet to issue a CI to give the enabling effect to the results of the referendum, as well as announce the capitals of the new regions.
Seed capital
Mr Botwe stated that the government was committed to releasing a budgetary allocation of GH¢20 million as seed capital for each new region immediately the various processes, including the submission of the report by the committee set up by the President to come up with a development plan for the regions, were completed.
“We need to know the needs of the people and how we can address them in the shortest possible time. In our interactions, we noticed that the people themselves had asked their district assemblies to also begin to put forward some medium and long-term plans and that will inform what the government is also going to do,” he said.
At the service
Earlier, while addressing the congregation, Mr Botwe had urged them to disregard all manner of “misconceptions” regarding the creation of the new regions because the move by the government had constitutional backing.
He also appealed to them to pray for the people in the affected areas to ensure that the entire process ended peacefully.
Source: Daily Graphic
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Chiefs and Opinion leaders in the new Regions should organize Forums in their particular regions to allowed advocates for siting regional Capitals at different places in the particular regions to present their views. They should be guided to constitute for themselves a panel of judges to evaluate the presentations and propose three places in an order of merit for the capital to the government. The evaluation must take into consideration the good of the entire region and what will become beneficial to all the people in that region. Every single soul in the region is an important Ghanaian and the interest of all the people in the regions must be taken into consideration. Since development was highly considered as one of the reasons to create the new regions, the citing of the capital should also take into consideration the neglected part of the new regions. Distance to the new regional capitals should not become extremely far only to one place. Capitals must be centrally located to help all so that it is not extremely disadvantage for any to reach. This must be done dispassionately without demonstration and confrontation. Interested groups must present and defend their position reasonably and logically to appeal to the wisdom of the appropriate authorities that will be set to review all the various opinions. All must think of the good of the region and not any selfish interest.