Vote for a Political Party committed to Economic Transformation- NORPRA  


Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy, NORPRA, is calling on Ghanaians particularly those from the Northern Savannah areas to vote massively for political parties whose policies and programs embedded in their manifestoes are directed towards the total economic transformation of Northern Ghana. 

In a statement signed by the President, Bismark Adongo Ayorogo and copied to GBC URA Radio, NORPRA is particularly worried about the infrastructural deficit facing the Northern Upper East and Upper West Regions. 

Northern Ghana, it noted, continuous to lag behind the rest of the country in terms of development and what mainly accounts for the situation is persistent and consistent lack of political will to aggressively embark on economic transformation of the area. 

It further stated that successive governments only paid lip service to pro-poor policies and programs meant to accelerate socio-economic development of the northern half of the country. 

The continuous neglect of the north which has huge development potentials, untapped economic resources including mineral deposits, oil and unlimited opportunities in agriculture has serious implications on the overall development of Ghana.  

For instance, the agricultural sector growth rate continuous to decline and food insecurity and hunger are worsening. Research has shown that between 1994 and 2013 total public investment in the northern part of Ghana was less than 1 percent. 

The effect of this is that while the number of poor people in the southern part of the country got reduced by 2.5 million, the number of poor people in Northern Ghana increased by almost one million.
 
The statement, however argued that for Ghana to reduce the inequalities, end poverty and hunger in line with the SDGs, there is the urgent need for all seeking power to strongly commit to making substantial investment in the Northern Savannah ecological zone for vigorous agricultural-led transformation with strong linkage to industrialization. 

It said the South-North development gap of Ghana still exists and NORPRA and many civil society organizations are wondering why competing political parties in this year’s elections are not making it a major campaign issue as was the case in 2008 and 2012.  

To this background, NORPRA is urging citizens of Ghana to critically examine the manifesto of each of the political parties to find out whether or not they have a clear vision and well-articulated plan for the total transformation of Northern Ghana into a place of opportunity free from poverty. 

This it said should form the basis for our informed choices of parties and candidates in this year’s election.

GBC