HARUNA ELECTED PM OF NADOWLI ASSEMBLY (PAGE 12, JULY 8)

THE Upper West Regional Chairman of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Mr Calistus Haruna, has been elected the Presiding Member (PM) of the Nadowli District Assembly.
Mr Haruna polled 48 out of the 51 votes cast. Earlier, four other contestants, namely, Messrs Andrew Kpan, Gaeten Kunpuolo, James Dasah and Bamba Godfrey, who filed to contest the position, stepped down and threw their weight behind Mr Haruna.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Haruna advised against lateness on the part of members of the house.
He commended those who stepped down for him and all other members of the house for the honour done him, and pledged to seek their welfare and that of the people of the district.
The Presiding Member also called for support from all stakeholders to accelerate the development of the district.
Addressing the meeting, which was the first ordinary meeting of the third session of the assembly, the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Ceasar Kale, commended members of the assembly for their unity of purpose and the solidarity they exhibited during the elections.
"This quality is gradually becoming your trademark, and I think other assemblies must emulate it" the deputy minister said, and advised the new PM to lead the assembly with humility, dedication, honesty and handwork.
Touching on the activities of assemblies, Mr Kale urged them to institute the necessary mechanisms to enhance their revenue generation efforts.
He stressed the need for district assemblies to make the internally generated funds key in their annual budgeting, saying “you must not rely so much on the Common Fund.”
Mr Kale expressed regret at the anomalies that had characterised the allocation of coupons for the government’s subsidised fertilisers for farmers, and, therefore, appealed to officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the region to collaborate with the assemblies to normalise the situation.
He also pointed out the need for the assemblies to make sanitation issues their priority.
The Nadowli District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Abu Kansangbata, for his part, appealed to the house to endorse his plans to seek the support of some contractors to pre-finance and re-roof seven schools whose roofs were ripped off by a rainstorm.
He mentioned some of the schools, such as the Tangasia L/A Primary School, Sazie L/A Primary School and the Saan R/C Day Nursery.
Mr Kansangbata called for the support of all members of the assembly as it strategised to improve on its revenue generation, adding that the assembly would include in its budget construction of a modern office complex to house the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS).
He also assured communities without electricity of the government’s preparedness to extend such facilities to all parts of the country, and urged them to support this effort by being vigilant and by reporting people found tampering with some of the materials meant for the project.