Minister of State at the Presidency in-charge of Regional Re-organization, Hon. Dan Kwaku Botwe has cautioned the Director of Elections for the Convention People’s Party (CPP) Kwabena Bomfeh to be circumspect regarding his utterances in an attempt to criticize people.
According to him, even though Akufo-Addo’s government welcomes criticisms, the way the Director of Elections for CPP spoke about the demand for the creation of new regions is very bad as if the government is doing something against the constitution of Ghana.
The Council of State has, unanimously, informed the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, that there is a substantial demand for the creation of new regions, after studying the petitions for the creation of new regions which were forwarded to the Council.
The Council has, therefore, advised President Akufo-Addo to appoint a Commission of Enquiry “to inquire into the need and to make recommendations on all the factors involved in the creation of the new regions” as petitioned by the Chiefs and people of Western, Northern, Brong Ahafo and Volta Regions.
But Kabila, as popularly known in politics on Okay FM, Wednesday, averred it is a misplaced priority for President Nana Akufo-Addo and his team to consider the creation of new regions as there are more pressing issues demanding attention of his [Akufo-Addo’] government.
He insisted the government should rather consider putting up structures and logistics at the various existing regions as it is will be appropriate to construct railways in the northern sector of the country so that transportation will be easy to link up with other regions.
He maintained that Akufo-Addo’s government does not understand its mandate and the reason Ghanaians voted for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) with such a wide margin for change of government.
“This government must learn to appreciate that and concede that it is not everything they promised Ghanaians from opposition that can be implemented at all cost. Donald Trump is suffering because of this character of Nana Addo’s government. I don’t know what the rush is about? Setting up commission of enquiry is going to be at a cost to the people; what is the commission of enquiry going to work on that we already don’t know about the need for creating new regions?” he quizzed.
Reacting to Kabila’s comment on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia’ Morning Show, Hon. Dan Botwe wondered why the action of President Akufo-Addo which is in line with the 1992 constitution has been likened to the unconstitutional behaviour of US President Donald Trump, denying people from coming to his country.
“Why is he comparing Donald Trump to our government? what does he hope to achieve by using those words? We are not saying he should praise us; we all saw what they said about us during last year elections, but we sold our manifesto to Ghanaians and we promised to fulfil the demands of Ghanaians and we all know what happened, so we are not bothered about criticisms,” he stated.
“But for him to say ‘does this government understand what its mandate is?’; I will say yes, we understand our mandate. Our mandate is that we are fulfilling our manifesto and promises which Ghanaians based on to vote for us and so we understand our mandate,” he replied.
He stressed that Akufo-Addo’s mandate is also rooted in the Constitution of Ghana; thus the drafters of the 1992 Constitution saw the importance of this and devoted the whole chapter 2 of the constitution to talk about the territories of Ghana.
“It is stated in article 5 that there will be a time to alter the boundaries of a region and so it is the mandate of every political party which forms a government to look into it. The article 5 shows how to go about it if there is a need to do this. If it is not in the constitution then he can say we are rushing and we don’t know what we are doing,” he added.
He hinted that many traditional leaders as far back as 1982 have written letters, memoranda and petitions to the various governments to consider the creation of new regions.
“The Constitution allows the President to initiate the creation of new regions or act on petitions from the traditional leaders and forward it to Council of State . . . the President received petitions from 4 regions and it is something they have fought for many years. Is Kabila saying those traditional leaders don’t know what they are saying? I think we also must respect those leaders expressing their views,” he posited.
He indicated that there are a whole lot of researches backing the need for the creation of new regions; thus, nobody is rushing to create the new regions, asserting that Kabila should rather be humble enough to read the Constitution carefully to understand the action of the government.
We're fulfilling our promises to Ghanaians – Dan Botwe replies Kabila
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