Bawumia has answer to Northern problems -Aliu

From William N-lanjerborr Jalulah, Bolgatanga

 

Ghana’s ex-Vice President in the eight-year rule of the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, says the vice-presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, would be in a better position to find solutions to the numerous problems confronting the people of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions at the presidency, than any other person.

According to the former Vice-President, per the workings of the President and his Vice, the Vice President was more accessible to the people than the president.

He explained that having served as Vice-President for eight years, he had the opportunity to travel to every corner of the country. Most of his visits, he said, were to attend funerals and festivals, and as well interact with the local people and to have first-hand knowledge of their problems, and find solutions to them.

At his residence in Bolgatanga, where he addressed a group of journalists, Alhaji Mahama cited many examples where he had to intervene as Vice President to solve the problems of people in different parts of the country.

He said since Dr. Bawumia, also a Northerner, who had visited almost all the communities and was now very much aware of their problems, he would be the best person at the Presidency to help solve all the northern problems, should the NPP be given the nod, come December 7.

He observed that the northern problems had been highlighted for far too long, and that it was time for them to be tackled, and the right political party with the mind-set, good programmes and policies, and the political will to address these problems, was the NPP.

He said if the NPP is voted back into office, Dr. Bawumia would visit the North more often than the President, and would therefore, be in a better position to visit every village to listen and address the people’s problems.

Some of these problems he identified include inadequate number of dams for irrigation, insufficient agricultural inputs, poor roads, and lack of jobs, and promised that the NPP would ensure all these problems were addressed, if Ghanaians gave them the mandate again.

Touching on the experiences from the various communities he recently toured in the North with the Dr. Bawumia, Alhaji Mahama said having ran the 2000, 2004 and 2008 campaigns, his community-to-community tours revealed that the people were yearning for real change.

This, he said, stemmed from the fact that their economic situation was worsening.

He said the NPP in 2001 left the reins of Ghana with hope for the people, but due to the bad management of the economy by the NDC, there was so much hardship among Ghanaians, especially the rural folks.

On how to ensure lasting peace between the Kusasis and Mamprusis in Bawku, the former Vice-President said since tempers were down and the place relatively peaceful, this was the time to revive peace talks by bringing the feuding factions together.

 

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