I'm Not Against Prez Mahama's Promise To Increase Regions, But . . . - Kweku Baako

Kweku Baako has expressed optimism over President John Dramani Mahama's declaration of increasing the number of the country's administrative regions to fifteen when he wins a second term in office. Delivering highlights on the NDC's yet-to-be outdoored manifesto, President John Mahama announced at the Banquet Hall, State House on Tuesday that his government will "set up a commission of enquiry to look into the creation of new regions.  "We currently have ten regions; but we believe that it is possible to increase the number of regions to 15. And so we will set up a commission of enquiry that will look at the viability of increasing the number of administrative regions in Ghana from ten to fifteen. And so this commission will receive petitions and based on that, they will look at whether creation of those regions are viable options or not; and based on that recommendation, we will trigger the constitutional processes." Speaking on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Kweku Baako expressed no qualms over the President's desire to increase the number of regions from 10 to 15, stressing he is not against the move in principle. He explained that Ghana begun with 3 regions before it was gradually increased to 10 and so believed the President can equally do same. “In principle, I have nothing against that. It depends on the analysis that we will do in terms of the demography, in terms of resource allocation, in terms of sole population dynamics; all those things. Ghana didn’t have 10 regions when it was started. I think it was 3…Greater Accra originally was part of Eastern Region legally and geographically. That’s how it was deemed to be except that the Minister of Local Government was responsible for Accra in terms of administration but properly speaking, it was by 1960 to 82 before Greater Accra was created legally as separate region by the PNDC…” The New Crusading Guide Editor-in-Chief however called on the Mahama administration to roll out the blueprint for the project. He therefore appealed to President, saying "I'm not against it in principle. I don’t have any problem with it but I want to see a little bit more of the meat that comes with the skeleton and then we can discuss it.”

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana