Abdul-Rahman Hanan Gundadow
The Mayor of Tamale, Abdul-Rahman Hanan Gundadow, has disclosed that the chunk of the assembly’s resources running into several billions of cedis over the years have sunk into the maintenance of peace to the detriment of development.
He had, therefore, directed the security agencies in the city to up their game and ruthlessly deal with any youth grouping that attempts to undermine the security of the metropolis. ‘No one can flout the laws with impunity and go unpunished,’ he remarked.
According to him, the assembly was already suffering the fatigue of continually channelling its resources in maintaining peace when that could best be used in bettering the conditions of residents in equally important areas.
He told youth groups at the commencement of a two-day sensitisation workshop in Tamale that the assembly could no longer afford to be lagging behind while its counterparts were fast developing just because of the selfish interest of the greedy few.
The MCE lamented that young people in the area have gained notoriety in recent years for disturbing the fragile peace resulting in political violence, killings and destruction of properties in the metropolis, and urged the youth to be tolerant of each other’s views.
This, he emphasized, was the only antidote to accelerating development in the region, urging them to consider the interest of the vulnerable who suffer most in times of disturbances and peacefully coexist.
Mr Gundadow maintained that the constitution of the country mandates citizens to have the free will to make their political choices devoid of fights and intimidation and therefore called on the youth to rededicate the energies to acquiring knowledge and also engage in productive ventures.
He noted that the Metropolitan Assembly had initiated programmes and policies to improve the living standard of residents and called on the youth groups to collaborate and dialogue with the assembly to promote sustainable development.
The MCE tasked the leaders of the groups to further liase with their assembly’s representatives to put forward their grievances for redress and urged them to hold the assembly members accountable for their stewardship.
He explained that the assembly collated views from various stakeholders and youth groups in preparing its composite budget and explained the contribution of the youth to the process ensures judicious use of scarce resources available to the assembly for development.
He announced his intension to start the people’s assembly forum in the various areas and appealed to the groups to present and make their views known when the forum comes to their area.
The Metropolitan Director of National Youth Authority (NYA), E. B Gyan Ansah, for his part said youth participation in decision making and implementation of the National Youth Policy was crucial to its success and urged them to be effective partners.
He called on political parties’ youth wings to coordinate and harmonise their activities through training in democratic development and direction to ensure the nurturing of democratic culture and values to address youth violence in the metropolis. This, according to him, would promote partnership between the youth and local authorities for inclusive and accountable governance.
Mr Gyan Ansah appealed to the youth to respect the rule of law by following due process of the law to enhance sustainable peace and development in the metropolis to attract investors to the area to create job opportunities.
The Programmes Director of CDD-Ghana Northern officer, Paul Osei-Kuffour in his welcome address, explained the Youth Voices Project was instituted by his outfit to create a platform for building sustainable partnership between youth groups and local authorities to promote development.
He disclosed the project had successfully established an interactive platform for leaders of 25 community base youth groups to share experiences on promoting peace and development and pledged his organisation’s willingness to provide technical support to harness productive capacities of the youth in the region.
From Stephen Zoure, Tamale
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