NASARA wing of NPP condemns NDC’S opposition to Zongo Fund

Kamal-Deen Abdulai

NASARA Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has applauded President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government for creating the Ministry for Inner Cities and Zongo Development purposely to attend to the unique needs of residents of the nation’s Inner cities and zongos.

It also commended the government for committing itself to establishing the Zongo Development Fund which would feature in the 2017 national budget to be read in March in fulfillment of the party’s flagship manifesto promise.

According to the statement signed by the National Coordinator of Nasara, Mr Kamal Deen Abdulai, it is no secret that the inner cities and Zongos are lagging behind in terms of development due to several years of neglect and marginalisation by successive governments.

Mr Abdulai stated that Nasara (an organ of the NPP with the mandate of seeing to the welfare of people living in inner cities and zongos) had consistently made a passionate appeal for governments to prioritise the development needs of these communities in order to bridge the widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.

“It is for this reason that the creation of a ministry for this purpose by the government of President Akufo-Addo comes to us as a refreshing news,” he added. He noted that with this bold intervention, the story of the inner cities and Zongos would assume a positive dimension.

He stated that the zongo communities were grateful to the NPP government for this novelty which would go a long way to better the lot of our zongos and inner cities.

Mr Abdulai also congratulated Mr Boniface Abubakar Saddique, the Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, on the occasion of his appointment as the minister responsible for this ministry.

He added that the Nasara had absolute confidence in Mr Saddique, considering the fact that he himself “is a typical ‘zongo boy’ and also one who has significant appreciation of the issues that matter to the good people of z`ongo and inner cities.” Mr Abdulai expressed surprise that some leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including Mr Inusah Fuseini, were kicking against this move by describing the creation of the ministry as discriminatory.

He described NDC’s opposition to the creation of this ministry as “most shocking and unfortunate.”

He condemned it and asked Mr Fuseini, “whose constituency has arguably some of the biggest slums and Zongos in the country, to retract his unfortunate comments and apologise to the good people of Zongo.”

The NPP National Nasara Coordinator stressed that residents of inner cities and zongos deserved even better.

Source: GraphicOnline