We need peace and security to develop the country – Mills
The President, Professor John Atta Mills, on Saturday stated that the country would soon take possession of a huge quantity of resources and would, therefore, need peace and security to utilise those resources efficiently for the nation’s development.
He said in addition to the expected oil revenue, the Chinese Government had promised a huge quantity of resources that would be used to improve various sectors of the economy.
President Mills was speaking at a durbar of Chiefs and people of the Upper East Region, held in Bolgatanga to climax the Region’s Golden Jubilee celebrations on the theme, ‘Harnessing Our Endowed Resources for Accelerated Development through Education’.
He called for unity and a sense of common purpose saying, “This is no time for division, we have to work together to overcome poverty and move the nation forward”.
The President condemned acts that sought to ignite fear and insecurity among the people and retard the country’s progress, saying that a sense of insecurity would only drive away investors and lower the morale of the people.
“We as a government would not allow people pursuing their myopic interest to retard the progress we are making in moving the country forward”, he added.
On oil, President Mills urged all those involved in smuggling oil to stop doing so as it was contributing to the debt of the Tema Oil Refinery. He sad even though the country’s oil would soon be begin to flow, it would not come in large quantities at the beginning and so its benefits would not be felt by all immediately.
President Mills assured the people of the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions that part of the expected resources from China would be used to boost the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) programme that is meant to speed up the development of the area.
Referring to the theme of the celebration, the President stated that the Government had a vision of investing in the people through education and was doing everything to improve education in the country.
He said the exercise books given to pupils free of charge, capitation grant, school feeding programme, as well as the expansion of school infrastructure were all measures being undertaken to promote and improve education.
Mr Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, welcoming the people, noted that peace had prevailed in Bawku for some time now, and expressed the hope that it would be sustained to allow investors to help develop the area.
“The development of our Region lies in our hands. It is therefore important for us as a people to eschew tribalism, sectarianism, the ‘pull him down’ syndrome and undermining each other. We need to unite and forge together as one people to fight our common enemy, which is poverty”, he said.
The Upper East Region was carved out of the Northern Region in 1960, to ensure effective administration and governance.
While celebrating the occasion, the people would also take stock of their achievements over the years, determine the challenges confronting them and chart the way forward to overcome those challenges.
The durbar was coloured by traditional music, dance and cultural display from all the Districts in the Region.
Source: GNA