Stakeholders at a forum in Wa have observed that the lack of a development plan for the municipality, over the years, has been the bane to its development. The stakeholders were speaking at a forum organised by the Senior Victory College, a private basic school in Wa, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. The discussions focused on the educational, health and general development of the Wa Municipality. Mr Abdul-Rahaman Zakaria, the Senior Assistant Registrar of the Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University in Wa, said there was a need for long-term, Medium-term, and short-term development plans for the municipality to guide its development trajectory. He added that the availability of the plan would ensure that the development of the municipality was measured against the targets and for the necessary actions to be taken when needed. ‘If you are doing something you should have targets, in the next five to ten years, where do I want to be, that is a long-term, medium-term, and short-term development plan. ‘If you don’t have that, you will be doing things anyhow’, he explained. Mr Zakaria said successive leaders of the municipality had also failed to engage the stakeholders and people of the municipality to spell out their vision for the municipality as leaders against, which they would be measured. Mr Abdul-Rahama Khalid, an educationist, indicated that the municipality should endeavour to identify the human capital potentials of the people in the municipality and tap into their experiences and potential. He said there were people from the Wa Municipality and the Upper West Region that had diverse potentials and abilities that when engaged, could transform the development fortunes of the municipality Mr Khalid added that such identified people, whether natives or non-natives of the municipality, should be properly engaged, motivated, and encouraged to commit their services and resources to the development of the municipality. Mr Mumuni Sulemana, the proprietor of the school, questioned why the Upper West Region had ‘fine brains’ scattered across the country and abroad yet the region was wallowing in abject poverty. ‘What are we not doing right? Why is it that we are unable to support our young ones with very brilliant ideas but allow these innovative ideas to die off? ‘We need to find a solution to this because community development is not one person’s job. ‘If every person, the media, politicians, entrepreneurs, clergy and chiefs are doing what is expected of us that will bring development to our municipality and the region,’ Mr Sulemana, who is the Northern Regional Director of the National Youth Authority, explained. He said that informed the decision to organise the municipal-level forum and that plans were in place to organise a regional forum to also assess the development challenge and potentials of the region. On his part, Mr Saeed Abdul-Shakur, a Principal State Attorney in the Upper West Region, observed that until the people of the municipality changed their attitude and mentality of deserting the municipality to work in ‘developed’ areas, the municipality would continue to suffer under-development. He said people should begin to see serving in their municipalities or districts and regions as their responsibility. Other speakers were Professor Hamida Dramani of Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University, Mr Nuhu Putiaha, a former Wa Municipal Chief Executive and Iliasu Baba, the Founder of Bahas Foundation. The forum brought together stakeholders who were natives of the Wa Municipality including: academia, the clergy, social advocates and public sector workers to discuss the development challenges of the municipality and to find antidotes to those challenges.
Source: Ghana News Agency