Nabdam District Assembly target rapid development

Story& Pix: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Nangodi The Nabdam District Assembly is one of the newly created assemblies inaugurated in June this year. The district was carved out of the Talensi-Nabdam District and according to the Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr. Francis Wongnab Mbabire, the 21 member assembly is ready to work hard to see the Nabdam District Assembly initiate projects that will bring development to the area and lift the place out of deprivation. Speaking to the Daily Graphic after its maiden meeting during which he was sworn into office by Mr. P.K. Richardson, a High Court Judge, the Presiding Member said the elevation of the area into a district status will require hard work from all the members of the house and as such will expect greater consultation and cooperation from all assembly members to meet the aspiration of the populace of the district. Apart from the swearing in of the Presiding Member, the assembly also constituted some sub committees in order to ensure a smooth operation of the assembly. The committees were the Development Planning, Social Services, Work, Justice and Security, Finance and Administration, Women and Children Sub-Committees The District capital is located at Nangodi, a mining town along the Bolgatanga-Bawku Highway. Other major towns are Sakoti, Kongo and Pelungu . Mr. Mbabire said like any new born baby, the area lack a lot of things including infrastructure, human resource to man the various decentralised departments, poor road network, inadequate health and educational facilities amongst several infrastructure needed to fast track development but with determination and hard work, they hope to overcome the many teething challenges in order to make the area one of the best in the region. “A new district such as ours, come with a lot of challenges. Some of these challenges will include the availability of resource to man the various departments given the fact that the area is deprived, inadequate accommodation for staff to be posted to the area, lack of water and other amenities that goes to make life comfortable. But as an assembly, we are committed to succeed and with time, we will overcome”, he said. The Presiding Member said, one of the immediate issues that needed to be addressed was the poor road network. For instance se said the road linking the district capital, Nangodi and Pelungu has been rendered impassable as a result of broken down culverts. Additional, that linking Nagodi and Sakoti was also not in a good shape. He also stressed the needed for drastic rehabilitation of the Nangodi section of the Bolgatanga –Bawku highway which is has developed many potholes. “As a district, we will require a good health facility. The present one cannot accommodate more than two persons and as a new district as such we will all have to work hard to get our facility expanded to cater for the health needs of the people. While commending the government for elevating the area into a district, he said the assembly will be looking forward for more support and assistance to help elevate the Kongo Senior High School into a boarding status in order to provide good education for the youth of the area. On revenue generation, Mr. Mbabire said the assembly would have to intensify education and involve the citizenry of the area in the fee fixing processes of the assembly in order to generate the needed revenue to run the assembly. The Acting District Chief Executive, Madam Vivian Anafo, enjoined all assembly members in the newly created assembly to cooperate with the administrators who will be assisting in the day to day activities of the office to help the area develop. She said one of the major challenges was the lack of accommodation for the officers to be posted to work in the area and therefore appealed to the assembly members to support and help in the securing of residential facilities for the officers. The District Coordinating Director, Mr. Adams Arafat Abubakari Tia called for team work for the development of the area. -End- Pix: Benjamin Glover July 18,2012