SADA MUST LEAD THE ACTION

Page 7: Daily Graphic, March 3, 2012. ONE of the major challenges confronting the country is the implementation of policies and programmes to improve the lot of Ghanaians. Many of the research and workshop proposals and recommendations are gathering dust on shelves because of our failure to implement them. Another weakness of the Ghanaian system is the plenty talk we engage in, with little or no action at all. It is in this vein that we agree with the call by the Board Chairman of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), Alhaji Alhassan Andani, for fast-track action on the development of the three northern regions. We could not agree with him more when he said: “We have had enough of the research. The talking has to stop and the doing has to start now.” Indeed, the problems of our society are known. What is lacking is the passion and commitment to confront them. The development gap between the north and the south is known and we do not need statistics to tell us what difficulties confront the people in the three northern regions. The poverty gap and under-development in the three northern regions are major scars on the national conscience which we must all seek to address now. As indicated by Alhaji Andani, for eight months in a year able young men and women sit in their villages in the north doing nothing because of the unavailability of opportunities, as they depend on the rainy season to make ends meet. In the event that the rains disappoint, their situation is worsened. This situation has compelled many of the young ones to travel down south to seek elusive opportunities and also become victims of abuse who live in terrible conditions. The government’s decision to operationalise the SADA programme has been received with much hope and joy. However, there seems to be little action being pursued in line with the government’s agenda for the three northern regions. The government has released quite a huge sum of money for the purpose and we believe it is high time the officers tasked to supervise the activities of SADA went into action. The Daily Graphic believes that every well-meaning Ghanaian and corporate institution must rally behind the government to mobilise support for the work of SADA. After all, the three northern regions can boast some resourceful personalities in the world who are serving both public and private enterprises. We cannot afford to leave the development of the three northern regions to the government alone. We must also avoid the tendency of depending so much on donor support for everything we do, as if without the support of the international community we cannot do anything. We must not only look within but also walk the talk. It is also time to appreciate that the donor community is suffering from donor fatigue that has been compounded by a downturn in the global economy. The Daily Graphic calls on the SADA Secretariat to initiate the doing with start-up funds from the government.