Apathy and indifference to issues of governance are preventing citizens of the Yendi from actively participating in the affairs of the municipality, so says the Yendi Municipal Assembly which has expressed worry about the lukewarm attitudes of the people in the area towards town hall meetings.
The assembly said its efforts at involving the people in development issues is receiving little attention and if this trend continues, it could affect efforts to address problems in the municipality.
The assembly was alarmed about the number of people who showed up at its last town hall meeting, after it had sent invitations through letters and radio announcement to various interest groups and the general public.
Invitations to the meeting, the assembly said, were based on the list of interest groups it had. According to the assembly, over five hundred people were invited for the town hall meeting and only 159 attended.
This, the assembly said, has the tendency of thwarting its efforts at involving the citizens in the planning and budgeting process to meet the community’s needs.
The assembly officials in response to questions at the dissemination of the ministry of local government and rural development Citizens’ Perception Survey forum in Tamale, bemoaned the polarization of issues and the tendency to associate everything in the area, with chieftaincy.
Top among the issues in the over two hundred and fifty (250) page survey report, were citizens’ satisfaction with MMDAs’ performance in education, health, access to roads, sanitation and professionalism among assembly staff, among others.
The Yendi Municipal Chief Executive (M.C.E), Alhaji Issah Zakaria and technocrats, who took turns to explain issues affecting their work, made passionate appeals to citizens to see them as service providers and not tag them with names anytime they try to carry out their legitimate duties.
On the way and manner Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives handle security issues, Alhaji Zakaria, who is also the chairman for municipal security committee said law abiding citizens need to go about their daily activities in peace and that the military are normally involved at times, due to the exigencies of the situation. ” We can’t allow few people to misbehave and disrupt business activities,” the M.C.E fumed.