Nov 02, 2012 at 11:15am

Northern Youth for Peace and Development (NYUPED), a non-governmental Organization, has criticised President John Mahama’s description of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) promise to build hostels for the nation’s porters as "insulting".

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential candidate at a rally in Savelugu in the Northern Region rubbished the NPP campaign promise of building hostel facilities for head porters saying it was insulting to the dignity of girls of Northern descent.

Executive Director of the Northern Youth for Peace and Development, Prince Hardi Adams has however, hit back at President Mahama and described his comment as misplaced.

According to him, President Mahama, who comes from the Northern Region, should have been more guarded in his comments and the backed such proposals rather than condemning it.

Prince Hardi called on the President to apologise to the head porters, majority of who come from one of the three regions in the North.

“The President is rather insulting the northerners, go to Bole-Bamboi, his hometown, there are a lot of Kayaayes [head porters] so if somebody is saying that he will build hostels for them, why should the President describe it as insulting. What the President said was unfortunate and what we are saying is that he should come out and apologize.”

He emphasized, “He shouldn't forget that he, the President, has brothers and sisters from his area who are doing Kayaaye and this system is disturbing. We have about 400,000 Kayaayes across the country. John Mahama has been President for three years, what has he done.”

In a related development, the Executive Director of Policy Think Tank, Imani Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has called for a comprehensive national policy to address the Kayaaye issue.

He observed that the phenomenon was disturbing, hence the need for successive governments to find a permanent solution to it.

He said, “Eventually it looks to me that both parties, the NPP and the NDC have got to realize that the only way they can stem the tide of this urban drift essentially is to emphasize the decentralization of governance and the management of resources in this country.”


By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/Citifmonline.com/Ghana