The Minister-designate for Regional
Reorganization and Development, Daniel Botwe, has assured members of
Parliament’s Appointments Committee that the creation of new regions by the
Akufo-Addo government will be in the interest of the nation not political
parties.According to him, the ultimate reason behind the policy was to
ensure “effective administration and accelerated development.”
President
Nana Akufo-Addo during his campaign tour promised to create new regions. He thus
followed it with the creation of the Regional Reorganization and Development
portfolio to execute it.
Announcing Mr. Botwe as Minister-designate for
the said portfolio, Akufo-Addo said the regions to be divided would be the
Northern, Western, Volta and the Brong-Ahafo regions.
According to him:
“The process of devolution of power will require that we look again at the
regional structures of our country all with the aim of trying to promote rapid
development of Ghana.”
Appearing before the vetting body on Monday as
the man to supervise the creation of the said regions, Mr. Botwe said the mere
creation of the region will aid development.
He assured the committee
that the move was not meant to give any political party electoral advantage or
to promote gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is defined as the act of manipulating
the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favour one party or
class.
“I can assure your committee that it is the view of his Excellency
the president [Nana Akufo-Addo] that this is national assignment for the
interest of all of us Ghanaians. There is no attempt to do anything to favour
any political party for that matter the New Patriotic Party (NPP),” he told the
committee.
“I can assure you that his Excellency the president doesn’t
have that mind set at all. It is for Ghana. I’m pretty about that and we’ll work
in a way that all of us will appreciate the fact that it is just for national
interest,” the Member of Parliament for Okere added.
“There’ll be no
attempt to favour any political party with the regional reorganisation… crying
of gerrymandering it doesn’t give us an advantage. Reorganisation of
constituencies and districts doesn’t create an advantage for any party, if it
does, it’s temporal. We should address the needs of the people.
“We have
Ghana at heart and it is just for national interest. It will enhance
administration and help create new roles. Nothing will be done to create
unnecessary advantage for any political party with the reorganisation of the
regions,” the nominee stressed. “The creation of new regions will not be done to
favour any political party.”
He added: “A lot of consultation will take
place to allay fears, with goodwill we will overcome the challenges… Nothing
will be done to give the NPP political advantage with the creation of the new
regions. The President feels this reorganisation will be of great help to the
country and we have to pursue it.”
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