STOP PULL-HIM-DOWN ATTITUDE (D/G, Tuesday, March 31, 2009. PAGE 16)

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, has urged members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Navrongo Central Constituency to stop the pull-him-down attitude.
He said they should rather offer him the necessary support to enable him to work in the interest of the region.
“The pull-him-down attitude is not benefitting anybody and is making a mockery of Navrongo which is touted as the citadel of education of the north,” he said, adding that “if we have to move forward and develop, then we have to learn to support each other no matter our political leanings and religious inclination”.
Mr Woyongo said this at a victory get-together organised by the Navro-Pungu branch of the NDC in the Navrongo Central Constituency.
He said though the NDC lost the parliamentary election of which he was the candidate, the party won in the presidential polls, and said it was time members of the party forgot the past, corrected their mistakes and put in new strategies that would help the NDC to win the 2012 general election.
“We are going to win all the seats in the region in 2012 with the policies and programmes we are putting in place, especially the poverty alleviation programmes and the special focus on agriculture,” he said.
The Regional Minister disclosed that the region, together with the two other northern regions, would benefit from some foreign assistance from the Canadian International Development Authority to the tune of $15 million for food security and other allied agricultural programmes.
He explained that the programme would take care of the marketing environment and production, adding that, that together with the NDC’s special attention to agriculture would boost food production in the region and help reduce poverty.
He, however, emphasised that these projects and programmes would only yield success if the people eschewed violence and embraced peace.
He, therefore, urged all and sundry to tolerate the views of people from the other political divide and ensure peace in their localities.
He announced that plans were far advanced to have the mortuary facility at the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital, which had broken down for some time, resuscitated at a cost GH¢8,000.
The Regional First Vice Chairman of the NDC, Mr Richard Aduah, thanked the people of the area for their support and said though the NDC failed to win the parliamentary seat, their hard work led to the victory of the party’s presidential candidate.
Mr Aduah urged supporters of the party to work hard and put in motion a vigorous campaign for the party to win the Navrongo Central seat in the 2012 elections.
He said the NDC would not be vindictive, stressing that the party would continue all projects initiated by the NPP government and cited the Navrongo–Pungu road still under construction as an example.
He urged the regional minister to remain focus in his determination to develop the region, adding that he should beware of people whose main preoccupation was to gossip.
Professor John Kabruise, a former Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies, who lost out in the campaign to contest the Navrongo Central seat on the ticket of the NPP, congratulated Mr Woyongo and pledged his support for him.
“Mr Woyongo is no stranger to us and we know that he is capable of bringing considerable development to the region,” he said.
He expressed shock at the defeat of Mr Woyongo in the parliamentary elections because the NDC won in the presidential election in both rounds and asked that some internal research ought be made to identify what went wrong.
He reiterated the need for peace and a determination to work together by all to enable the regional minister to deliver in his new appointment.