Bonaba Baba Salifu Atamale Aleemyarum, Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, has expressed optimism that education would turn the fortunes of the District around as the area is the most deprived in the country.
He said even though there is a science based private university in the District, located at Namoo, which could serve Senior High School (SHS) graduates within the area and beyond, it is unfortunate four SHSs namely; Namoo SHS, Beo SHS, Soe SHS and the Balungu Technical School still remained community schools whereas they could be upgraded and absorbed by government to feed the university.
“I would be grateful if you could use your good office to absorb some of them particularly Namoo and Soe schools, since they are the oldest,” Bonaba Aleemyarum said this when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo visited the District to inspect ongoing construction work on one of government’s flagship programmes; one-village, one-dam and performed the ceremony to signal the start of work on the Bongo-Balungu-Namoo-Zorko road.
Bonaba Aleemyarum appealed to government to provide an administration block and girls’ dormitory to accommodate the increasing numbers of SHS admissions at the Bongo SHS adding that “since this District is most deprived, we are optimistic that it is only education that can turn our fortunes.
He said the District has no befitting hospital to serve the health needs of a population of about 100,000; “I am saying this because the hospital lacks certain vital structures; for example, children and females sharing one ward, lack of mortuary facilities, lack of ambulance services etc.”
Bonaba Aleemyarum said there are six sub-district clinics with 36 Community Based Health Planning Services (CHPs) dotted around the District adding that it is necessary to have a modern district hospital to serve as a referral centre and assured the President of his readiness to release land for such purposes.
The Paramount Chief called on government to speed up the completion of the Regional Hospital which serves as referral centre to all district hospitals and to ensure that doctors were posted to the region to curb the dwindling numbers of doctors at the facility.
He said the District has the potential to provide valuable materials to the manufacturing sector as clay and dimension stones were in abundance and appealed to the President to upgrade the District to a Municipal status to completely propel the area for development.
He thanked the President for initiating various flagship programmes adding that they are aimed at improving the living standards of the people.