Thousands of ecstatic crowds on Monday thronged the streets of Damongo to welcome President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who begins a two-day visit of the Northern, North East and Savanna regions.
The teaming crowd showered doses of profound appreciation on the President over the creation of the region, which had remained a mere dream for over fifty years.
Receiving President Akufo-Addo, the Yagbonwura, Bikunuto Jewu Soale I, extended his appreciation to the President and recounted the numerous contributions made towards the development of the region.
President Akufo-Addo conveyed the gratitude of the nation to the Jakpa stool which under Yagbonwura Tutumba Boresa Sulemana Jakpa I, one of the three chiefs helped to bring peace to Dagbon.
“The second was the cooperation I received from him in the creation of the Savannah region. When I came to office, I received the petition from the people and the chiefs of Gonjaland, that they wanted their region and had been demanding it for many years” he added.
President Akufo-Addo explained, “I said to him that, the way the constitution is written, it is the people of the area who will determine whether they want a region or not. I told him on my part, that I was ready, and that if he was ready then we could work together. And by the grace of God, we were able to work together, and we succeeded in bringing the Savannah region into existence.”
President Akufo-Addo indicated that he will always remember him, and “always be grateful to the Jakpa stool, for these two great achievements of my presidency.”
Recalling the period of the campaign in 2016, President Akufo-Addo said, “When I was campaigning here in 2016, I told you that sometimes, your best brother is not the man from your village, but from a village far away, and that’s me, your brother from Kyebi, I will look after you better than your own brother.”
“In education, health, road infrastructure, industrial development, agriculture, in all of these sectors, there is every reason for the people of the Savannah region to be happy about the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”
The President stated that years before he came to office, every year, over 100,000 young men and women would drop out of education between Junior and Senior High School, not because they did not qualify, but because their parents could not afford Senior High School Education.
According to him, over ten years will mean one million young Ghanaians will drop out of the educational system, and that was a big waste of the human resources of the country.
“That is why I insisted that if the good people of Ghana gave me the chance, I will institute the Free Senior High School policy” President Akufo-Addo noted.
The purpose, he said, is to prepare the country to compete successfully in the 21st century adding “So you are hearing of students from our schools winning global awards in robotics and artificial intelligence.”
