Tamale takes its turn in Regional consultations on 40-year development plan  


Tamale took its turn on the 17th and 18th of September 2015 for the regional consultations being organized by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) towards the preparation of a long-term national development plan for Ghana.
 
The series of regional consultations which began  in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, on the 13th and 14th of August 2015, continued at Bolgatanga  in the Upper East Region on the  10th and 11th of September 2015 and will be held in all other regions before ending in Accra.
 
As part of the process, participants from various sectors of society, including representatives from the six main political parties that participated in the last general elections— the New Patriotic Party, National Democratic Congress, Convention People's Party, Progressive People's Party, People's National Convention and the Great Consolidated Popular Party— met in smaller groups to share and exchange ideas on the long-term national development plan.
 
Presenting their vision of Ghana in 2057 at the forum in Tamale, the  youth from three schools— Tamale Girls’ Senior High School, Tamale Senior High School and Ghana Senior High School— stressed the need for attitudinal change in Ghana, equitable and judicious distribution of resources and a transformed multi-party democratic political system devoid of partisanship.
 
The youth envisaged Ghana as a highly industrialised exporter of finished products, with a highly mechanised and productive agricultural sector, as well as fully-staffed and equipped teaching hospitals in all regional capitals providing quality health care. 
 
Addressing the forum, the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, commended NDPC for the national consultation initiative, adding that a long-term plan was long overdue and that its absence was the main reason why Ghana’s development efforts had been largely fragmented, incoherent and abysmal in some cases.
 
Alhaji Limuna said peace and security was his topmost priority and prerequisites for development in the Northern region.
 
The Sagnari Naa, Yakubu Abdulai, in his remarks, shared his vision of Ghana as a nation devoid of hunger, sickness, illiteracy and corruption and a Ghana of one people in freedom and relishing justice for all in equal measure.
 
The Sagnari Naa said within the plan period, Ghanaians should aspire to becoming a nation of healthier, happier and vibrant citizens living in a homeland environment and flourishing with blissful flora and fauna.
 
 
In a statement, the Northern Region Representative of NDPC and Chairman of the forum, Professor Seidu Al-hassan, urged all Ghanaians to participate in the process towards the development of the 40-year national development plan.
 
Professor  Al-hassan noted that NDPC was leading the process as a facilitator and not as the architect of the plan and, therefore, it was the responsibility of all Ghanaians to help prepare this all important national development plan.
 
For his part, the Director-General of NDPC, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, said a critical factor in developing a plan to guide the country’s development for 40 years was to ensure that the plan represented the views and aspirations of people, institutions and identifiable groups throughout Ghana. 

"We all as Ghanaians, including governments that will be elected within this period, will have to commit themselves to the realisation of the initiatives and programs of the 40-Year Development Plan. If we don’t make efforts and join the process and keep raising doubts about its feasibility, we will not achieve the development we desire,” Dr Thompson stressed.
 
Source: ISD