CONTINUE TO ASSIST IN NATIONAL DEVT ...Samari urges senior citizens (D/G Tuesday July 22, 2008 PAGE 20)

THE Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Alhassan Samari, has appealed to senior citizens in the region to reflect on how best they can still be of use to the national development effort. "The development of Ghana and the Upper East Region can only move forward through the collective efforts of all of us in addressing poverty and the diseases that have afflicted our people," he said. Mr Samari said this in Bolgatanga at a reception organised by the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) for senior citizens in the region to commemorate Ghana's Republic Day. He noted that the region was endowed with natural resources such as irrigable land, minerals and tourist sites that could be exploited by potential investors. "There is the need for us to work concertedly towards creating a congenial atmosphere for both private and government businesses to go on uninterrupted," the regional minister emphasised. He stressed the need for the senior citizens to ensure that incidents such as communal conflicts in Bawku, as well as land and chieftaincy disputes and highway robberies, were done away with to promote the accelerated development of the region. Mr Samari enumerated some of the achievements of the NPP government since 2000, adding that the improvement in the economy could not have been possible without the wise counsel and efforts of some of the senior citizens. Each of the over 100 senior citizens from all the municipalities and districts in the region, with the exception of those from the Bawku municipality, was presented with a full piece of Ghana@50 cloth and cash of GH¢40. Present at the ceremony were the Deputy Regional Minister, Mrs Agnes Chigabatia, as well as municipal and district chief executives for Garu Tempane, Talensi-Nabdam, Bongo, Kassena-Nankana West and Kassena-Nankana Central.