BLAME YAWNING DEVELOPMENTAL GAP BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH ON LEADERSHIP

Tamale based business magnate, William Majeed Mahama has blamed Members of Parliament from the three regions of the north for the under-developed nature of northern Ghana. He said MP’s from northern Ghana lacked the political goodwill to push successive government to fulfill their campaign promises to the people of the area. According to William Majeed, the people of northern Ghana will continue to languish in abject poverty unless their MPs especially those whose party is in power whip the government to fulfill some its major campaign promises. William Majeed Mahama was contributing to the topic, “Bridging the yawning gap between northern and southern Ghana: the role of stakeholders from the north” at a symposium in Tamale.” He commended government for initiating the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority but was quick to state that it will have no positive impact on the people of northern Ghana if government does not allocate the required resources needed for its smooth implementation. William Majeed Mahama thus implored the Mills-Mahama led NDC administration to explain to the good people of northern Ghana why it deposited only 8 million Ghana cedis into the SADA kitty instead of the 25 million Ghana cedis that was captured on the 2011 supplementary budget. “SADA is an unquestionable programme that is geared towards bridging the developmental gap between the north and south: government promised a certain seed capital towards this programme and so far only eight million Ghana cedis has been paid into SADA account, why, he questioned? The Tamale based business magnate charged chiefs in northern Ghana to emulate the shining examples of their southern colleagues who have initiated self help projects to alleviate the plight of their people. William Majeed Mahama impressed upon the chiefs to place premium on education by establishing education endowment funds as the basis to help needy but brilliant students acquire higher academic laurels to support their deprived communities. “Until we get a political, social and traditional leadership that will truly represent us and inspire and reorient the mentality of our people towards development, central governments handouts would continue to be white elephants” he observed.