Bolgatanga, March 22, GNA – Dr Ephraim Nsoh Avea, outgoing Upper East Regional Minister, has counselled his successor, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru,  to make people the central focus of his administration.
According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a social democratic party is a peoples’ centred party and that in every decision making process, the interest of the citizenry must be first before any other thing.
‘My piece of advice to you is that make people the focus of development and it must start here. The staff who service this administration must be motivated; their working conditions should be looked at so that they can offer services that are reliable and efficient for the effective delivery of government programmes.
‘Governance is about the people and so is politics. You should, therefore, go out there and relate, listen and hear the concerns of the ordinary person and programme to address their needs. When we affect the lives of one or two persons, we end up affecting hundreds and thousands and that is our cardinal call as leaders,’ Dr Avea said.
He said the Upper East Region had enjoyed peace over the past few years as a result of the hard work of his predecessor, Mr Mark Woyongo, now Defence Minister, and other key stakeholders and urged Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru to listen to good counsel and proceed from there.
Dr Avea said though he had been in the region for only two weeks, a number of issues had come to his notice which were of serious concern to the people, cardinal among which was the frequent shortage of fuel.
He said he had had two meetings with fuel station managers to get first hand information on what the challenges were and to help address them.
He, therefore, asked his successor to take steps to consolidate his efforts so as to lessen the burden on the ordinary man.
Dr Avea said he had began a process of producing a region-specific development blueprint to concretely direct and build synergy and coherence in development interventions by government and other development partners for rapid growth and poverty reduction of the region.
He said when development interventions were not well directed and coordinated, wastage and duplication became the order of the day, pulling back progress and making government’s achievements less appreciated.
He, therefore, advised Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru to give serious thought to the issue of a region-specific blueprint as a way of fast-tracking development in the Upper East Region.
On his movement to the Upper West Region, he said he was sure of a warm reception by his brothers and sisters there adding; ‘we are one and the same people and the issues that confront us are the same.’
Dr Avea thanked the staff of the RCC for their support and asked them to accord the incoming minister the same support.
Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru, on his part, thanked Dr Avea for his advice and promised to consult him whenever the need arose and said he would work with the people to sustain the current peace the region is enjoying.
‘Job creation for the teaming youth and the fight against poverty and diseases will be among some of the issues I will be addressing. Our greater enemy is poverty and diseases,’ he said.
He said he would meet the staff of the RCC to chart the way forward.
GNA