Oti citizens pledge support to develop region

The people of the Oti Region have pledged their readiness to assist the government to diligently implement its new policies and programmes to enhance the rapid development of the region.

This pledge was expressed by the former municipal/district chief executives (MDCEs) who have been in office since 2001 and after the creation of the Oti Region in February 2020, during a stakeholders’ engagement at Dambai last Friday.

The one-day event, organised by the Oti Regional Coordinating Council (ORCC), sought to harness their resources and experience for a solid foundation for the new MDCEs to be appointed by President John Dramani Mahama.

The participants who were from the two major political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), overwhelmingly agreed that they were one people with a common destiny.

It was a nice, friendly and trustful exchange of views as each of the MDCEs shared the past stories in administration of their districts.

They talked about the various methods they used to overcome challenges that confronted them, especially due to the inadequacy of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) given to them.

At the ceremony, the Oti Regional Minister, John Kudzo Gyapong, said since development was in the district, it was important to bring the former MDCEs together to learn from their experiences for a rapid take-off in development.

Mr Kudzo Gyapong said the fact that they were responsible for law and order at the grass roots, made it crucial for them to be involved in the talks for sustainable peace and development in the region. 

Remain united

The minister said since the region was a new one, they needed to remain united in the spirit of inclusiveness in order to meet the aspirations and hopes of the people.

He asked the former MDCEs to support his call for peace and commended them for their contributions, which he said had become legacies that needed to be replicated.

A former Member of Parliament and Krachi East District Chief Executive, Michael Yaw Gyato, on behalf of the MDCEs, commended the regional minister and the ORCC for bringing them together and allowing them to be part of the development process in the region. 

Mr Gyato mentioned the various methods to improve the mobilisation of revenue, the quest for external funds and lobbying to attract development to their districts. 

He said Dambai, now a regional capital, could not still depend on the raw water of the Oti River for their domestic use and advised the minister to quickly look out for ways to make the water potable.

He said the Oti River could be exploited through irrigation to improve agriculture with the vast fertile lands surrounding the area. He also talked about the lack of a hospital in Dambai and appealed to the minister to work towards it. 

Facelift

Mr Gyato also urged the minister to contact the Lands Commission since he was able to acquire various lands which were documented for various projects during his tenure of office. That, he said, would assist in giving Dambai the facelift it needed.

He told the regional minister that they would be ready for a closed-door meeting for in-depth discussion on the subject.  

A former DCE of Kadjebi, Kofi Adjei Ntim, advised the minister to exploit the various natural resources such as huge deposits of alluvial clay at Kadjebi.

“We need to diversify the economy and ensure that our quest for clay mining and land use does not affect farming activities and the region’s resolve to increase food production,” he said.

Mr Ntim spoke about the need for discipline, which he said was a prerequisite for peace and rapid development.

He advised them to include the traditional authorities in whatever programme they wanted to undertake.