A LAUDABLE INITIATIVE (JULY 3)

Last Tuesday, the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, performed a historic function at the International Conference Centre that deserves the attention of all development-minded Ghanaians. This was the launch of a US$250 million Volta Region Economic Plan (VOREP).
The five-year plan (2009-2014), the initiative of the region’s traditional authorities, led by Togbe Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia of Asogli State and President of the Volta Region House of Chiefs, is a bold effort to mobilise the chiefs and people for a collective assault on poverty and other forms of deprivation.
The plan envisages the upgrading of educational facilities, provision of infrastructure and creation of job opportunities for the youth.
The significance of VOREP is that it is one of the rare private initiatives to confront underdevelopment by a people on such a massive scale. As Vice-President Mahama himself stated at the launching ceremony that “it is a shared responsibility on the part of the government and traditional authorities to fashion out strategies to address problems of poverty and poor infrastructure in the country” and he did not hide his appreciation for the initiative by the chiefs of the Volta Region to alleviate poverty.
The Agbogbomefia also echoed this point when he said VOREP was informed of the realisation that as traditional rulers they had to accept the responsibility to facilitate the development aspirations of their people.
It is heart-warming that our chiefs are beginning to realise that it is not parading in ornaments at festive occasions that help to resolve the development challenges but rather going beyond their ceremonial roles to become architects of development.
The over-reliance on the central government as the sole initiator and provider of development projects can never give us the necessary push to achieve our development aspirations.
There are many things that we can do or at least initiate at the local level before seeking external support if only we can be proactive and identify our priorities and available local resources, both material and human, to change the destiny of the people.
It is, therefore, important that the VOREP initiative is given due recognition and support to attain the desired effect so that it can be replicated in other parts of the country.
The Daily Graphic urges the people of the Volta Region and indeed all Ghanaians to rally behind their chiefs to bring the noble objectives set out in the plan to fruition.
It is our hope that although VOREP is supposed to be a private venture, the government will offer every necessary assistance to facilitate its success, for our people have a wise saying, which loosely translated means if you are climbing a fruitful tree you get the needed push.
We think the chiefs and people of the Volta Region have embarked on a programme that, to all intents and purposes, promises to bear fruits for the benefit of the whole country and they need the push from all.
To the Agbogbomefia and his other colleagues who mooted this noble idea, we commend and wish them well.
It is the hope of the Daily Graphic that the VOREP will serve as a trailblazer for other parts of the country to emulate to bring smiles to the faces of our people.