President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, Torgbui Tepre Hodo IV, has called for a deeper collaboration between Members of Parliament, District Chief Executives and traditional authorities for the development of the region.
To Torgbui Tepre Hodo IV, the lack of coordination between the three units on the ground affected smooth implementation of policies and development in general.
Delivering the keynote address to open a three-day Volta Region MPs caucus stakeholders conference here in Ho on Monday, Torgbui Tepre Hodo IV said the lack of co-ordination which had been a source of concern for the House, was slowing the development of the region.
“Quite often, some of our chiefs at the Regional House of Chiefs complain to me about the fact that some development projects that are being carried out in their traditional areas are done without any form of reference to them.
“Let us not forget the fact that the chief is the contact point in every traditional area and therefore, if projects, for example are going to be executed, it is only fair and right that as a major stakeholder, the chief should be the first point if call.
“It is when we all do this in the interest of mutual respect that we will be able to progress with our agenda. I hope that we are going to begin to things like that going forward in the interest of the Volta Region,” Torgbui Tepre Hodo IV admonished.
According him, chiefs had on occasions tried to mend frosty relationships between MPs and District Chief Executives on both ends of the political divide to no avail; a situation he said impacted the development of the area negatively.
He said in as much as MPs and their counterparts District Chief Executives should be interested in the political fortunes of their parties and themselves, “but when it comes to development, we should be a or to eschew the partisanship and collaborate we can move our region forward”.
The quality of materials that were sent to the assembly, TorgbuiTepre Hodo IV who doubles as the Paramount Chief of Anfoega, said must also be of concern to the lawmakers because they ran the assemblies.
As MPs, the chief said they had the potential to drive the needed development to the region by championing the right policies to attract private investment to the region.
Under the auspices of the Volta Region MPs caucus, the three-day conference brought together all 17 lawmakers from the opposition National Democratic Congress and the sole governing New Patriotic Party lawmaker in the Region for Hohoe, John-Peter Amewu.
Other stakeholders present included the Regional Minister, Dr Archibold Letsa and officers from the Regional Coordinating Council, the Regional House of Chiefs, the Volta Development Forum, the Ghana Journalists Association, political parties, and business owners.
The bipartisan forum aimed at chatting a pathway to harness the human and natural resource potentials of the region for rapid development of the region.
From Julius Yao Petetsi, Ho
