NORPRA intensify Its Campaign on Accountable Governance

11-09-2011

Members of the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA) together with some community volunteers yesterday embarked on a massive clean-up exercise at Bolgatanga to rid the municipality of filth. The launch of the clean up exercise which was to demonstrate their sense of civic responsibility and love for the region was also use to intensify their campaign for accountable governance and a search for new leadership for Northern Ghana dubbed: “Get Them Out in 2012 General Elections”. Addressing a section of the public aftermath the exercise, the President of NORPRA, Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, said the launch of their campaign was necessitated by the constant failure of the Members of Parliament both in majority and minority from northern Ghana to effectively champion the cause of northern Ghana and also their inability to articulate the concerns of their electorates, particularly the poor and vulnerable groups in their respective constituencies. To him, MPs manning the three regions of the north have turned deaf ears to the plight of their constituents and have on several occasions shirked their responsibilities by relying on interest groups and organizations to bring about development in their constituencies. Mr. Adongo Ayorogo moreover explained that the MPs have failed in their core mandate to check government’s diversion and misappropriation of public funds meant for development of northern Ghana. Additionally, the MPs have not been able to demand equitable allocation of resources to address regional inequalities in Ghana. This, he lamented has worsened the plight of the ordinary people of northern Ghana, who, he indicated are already grappling with issues of poverty, hunger, conflict and deprivation. He said government on the other hand has reneged on its campaign promise to better the living conditions of people of northern Ghana its pro poor policy interventions and attributed the challenge to lack of strong political will to back those policies. Successive governments he noted also failed in their quest to alleviate the plight of Ghanaians, though policies such as the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and the programme to mitigate the social cost of Adjustment (PAMSCAD) were implemented. These policies, he observed, led to the total collapse of huge employment-guaranteed local industries such as the Pwalugu Tomato Factory and the Bolgatanga meat factory among others, thereby deepening the unemployment situation and vulnerability in northern Ghana. He said the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) which is a pro-poor policy being instituted by the Mills-Mahama led administration is bound to fail because signals are very clear that government has failed to deliver its part of the 4-year social contract it entered into the people of northern Ghana in 2008. He described as a serious breach of SADA contractual agreement, government’s failure to provide a promised seed capital of GH¢200 and a yearly allocation of GH¢100 for 20 years in support of the programme. He said instead of government exhibiting its strong political will to the programme, some people in government have rather taken delight in beating the intelligence of the people with the explanation that SADA is not an event but a process. Mr Adongo Ayorogo, therefore called on the government to deliver on its core mandate by ensuring that northern Ghana gets the chunk of the country’s resources since they are deprived in terms of resource allocation. He also challenged the people of northern Ghana, particularly the Chiefs to rise up and put government to the task and moreover demand accountability from duty bearers at all times.
GBC END IA