Residents of Fihini and Kpalgun communities in the Tolon constituency of the Northern Region have issued a strong warning to politicians not to step foot in their communities during the 2016 general elections.
According to the communities, the about four miles road linking their communities to the district capital has been left to deteriorate for several years now.
The two communities are just a few out of many in the region facing similar problems. Prior to the 2012 elections, neglected communities had to issue a fiat christened; no electricity, no vote. Most of them are now connected to the national grid by the courtesy of government rural electrification project.
Perhaps, the warning by the Fihini and Kpalgun communities set the tone for another slogan from neglected communities to demand their share of the national cake ahead 2016 elections. Rural people from most districts in the northern region have been grappling with bad road network in spite of government’s effort to addressing the problem.
During the late president Mills’ regime, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies were provided with heavy duty equipment (excavators) to periodically re-gravel and fill potholes on the feeders. However, most of the excavators are parked at the assemblies under the pretext that they do not have enough money to fuel them compounding the rural folks’ woes.
After several appeals to the Member of Parliament for Tolon, Wahab Suhuyini and the Tolon district assembly yielded no positive results, community member decided to embark on self-help road maintenance. For the people in Fihini and Kpalgun, local governance means nothing to them because they don’t even know the name of the district chief executive for Tolon.
The community members say all development actors, from the MP to the DCE and the assemblyman whom they entrusted their confidence in appears to be dragging their feet any time they raise issues of bad nature of the road, hence their decision to fill-in all potholes.
On Tuesday (yesterday) the two communities embarked on communal labor to make the only road linking their communities to the district capital motorable.
The communities’ members fear the bad nature of the road could affect teaching and learning as some teachers may use it as an excuse for their lateness to school to teach their children. When contacted, the MP said he is making efforts to help address the road problem.
