Monday, August 9, 2010

TRAIN MMDAs ON CENSUS — DAWUNI (PAGE 13, 2010)

THE Assembly Member for the Nakpale Borile Electoral Area at Tatale, Mr Edward Atta Abebe Dawuni, has stressed on the need for the training of presiding members of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies on the intricacies of the impending population and housing census this year.
He noted that such an informed exercise would enable the members to educate their colleagues in the assemblies, who would in turn explain the importance of the census to the electorate, including chiefs at their respective local levels.
“I will therefore entreat the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to liaise with the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG to chart the way forward in this direction,” Mr Dawuni stated.
He made the call during an interaction with the electorate in his constituency at Tatale in the Zabzugu/Tatale district of the Northern Region.
Mr Dawuni, who is also the Presiding Member of the assembly, pointed out that since some people still held the erroneous customary beliefs about enumeration of people, it would be necessary for assembly members to have some knowledge about the census to enable them educate their people to co-operate with the field workers who would be deployed for the exercise.
Touching on education, he appealed to the people to reduce their expenditure on funerals, weddings and other social events and rather channel their resources into their wards schooling.
Mr Dawuni further observed that “it is only through education that we can lift ourselves out of the prevailing poverty situation and also improve on our well-being and the accelerated development of our various communities.”
He, therefore, urged them to take advantage of the government’s social intervention policies in education through the provision of free school uniforms, books and feeding programme by not only enrolling their children in school, but making sure that they supported them to complete their respective courses.
The assembly member also advised them to register with the National Health Insurance Scheme to enable them benefit from the free medical service in the hospitals and clinics.
Mr Dawuni however noted that development could not thrive in an atmosphere of instability and therefore advised them to continue to maintain the prevailing peace in the area to attract the necessary investments.
The Paramount Chief of Tatale traditional area, Obore Gariba Yankosor, who was part of the meetings, appealed to Ghanaians not to politicise the impending population census exercise and called for maximum co-operation from all stakeholders for its success.

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