Former Presidential Aspirant Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa has proposed that Ghana’s political and administrative capital be moved from Accra to Gonjaland up north.
“I have not been there but looking at the map of Ghana, it sits at the Geographical centre. It is my ‘peninsular’ of the Northern region surrounded by the Brong Ahafo region”.
He said the enclave, which is bordered to the North and North East by the Volta Lake, has shores that can be beautified and not used for free ranged activities.
It is surrounded by the South East and West by the Brong Ahafo region.
“The only way it is currently administered by the Northern region is by a trip from Tamale to Kintampo, Nkoranza, Ejura, Atebubu before one gets to this project of the East Gonja District. Let me reiterate that it will open up Ghana tremendously and reduce the tension that goes with overcrowded and ethnic tensions that have surfaced the present capitation from time to time”.
He believes that move will not only open up the country but also transfer development to other parts of Ghana.
“It would, in my view, open up this country for greater development; bring the country closer together; nowhere will be more than 400 km from the capital and will therefore greater accessibility and bring the people together”, he argued.
The former Director General of the Ghana Health Service made the proposal when he delivered the 47th J.B. Danquah memorial lecture in Accra.
According to him, “Accra has become congested and must be decongested and the only way to decongest Accra and bring the country together in one swoop will be to make Accra the business capital; free it from the nation’s administration gridlock”.
He said: “Let nobody say there is no money; all we need is the will and the desire to do it”.
How to go about it
Prof Akosa proposed that, over a four year period, the area shall be acquired, surveyed and the current inhabitants relocated if need be.
“All the lands will be serviced and [an] agency such as the national infrastructural plan of the NDPC shall be given the right to apportion the land”, he suggested.
He said an underground sewage system shall be done and a four bedroom house will be built for the President to relocate from the Flagstaff house until the new capital is completed.
“Land shall be demarcated and given to all embassies, international and domestic airports, national railways for both underground and surface rails shall be developed.
“Land shall be offered to companies willing to relocate into the capital enclave. Real Estate developers will bid for land to build houses with the support of mortgage companies that must be facilitated into existence such as the Freddie Marc and Freddie May in the USA to provide finance for the building of rented and owner occupier properties. The road network into the capital enclave shall be developed with a free flow of traffic in mind”.
He said the relocation can be done systematically, adding that: “We must think big as a country and work hard to achieve it”.
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