[ 2017-01-30 ]

Daniel Botwe explained the rationale behind the creation of new regions to the Appointments C'ttee

New regions won’t favour NDC or NPP – Botwe
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.”

Source - Starrfmonline.com

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