The people of Nakolo in the Kassena-Nankana West District have threatened not to vote in Election 2012 if the government closed its eyes to pleas for proper development of the area.
The people complained about the lack of portable water, high rate of school drop out, poor road network, lack of teachers and accommodation as well as the general lack of opportunities.
To try in their own ways to reverse the trend somehow, the people organized a durbar to find ways of improving on their living conditions.
Mr. Richard Alogitega, President of the University of Ghana Nursing School (UGHANSA) and a citizen of Nakolo, said the durbar was to help call the community to duty by creating awareness that there was much they could do as a community to improve their living conditions by themselves.
He said several efforts were made to organize extra classes for students in the area but the area did not have electricity while many brilliant students could not further their education due to financial constraints.
He said the leadership of the area was aware that the lack of development in the area was due to the limited resource governments committed to the area saying “all these were happening in the face of the many opportunities and endowments the community is blessed with”.
Mr. Alogitega said for a meaningful impact to be made towards development in the area, the community needed to reflect on how far they had come and the role they could play individually to improve the situation.
He said finding common grounds for discourse and for people to make input into the development of the area was important, saying the attitude of people to look up to central government through the local government level structures for the provision of amenities was not effective.
He said the time had come for the people to take up the mantle of leadership and ignite the people to take up the challenge towards meeting their own developmental needs.
Mr. Alogitega appealed to the government to upgrade the Nakolo Clinic to a health centre to reduce the number of cases that are referred to the Navrongo Hospital, provide the area with a dam for dry season farming and link up the Mayoro/Paga road to enable the community transact business with neigbouring villages.
He also called on stakeholders in the district to play their role effectively to ensure that needs of the area were addressed, saying “we have natural right to our share of the national cake”.
Mrs. Lucy Awuni, the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, congratulated the youth and chiefs of the area for taking the initiative to come together to deliberate on development issues.
She assured the people that their concerns would be looked into and said there were some water projects approved for the district assembly to implement indicating that Nakolo would be one of the communities to benefit.
An appeal for fund yielded about GH¢1,000.00.