Tamale, May 20, GNA - Mr Clifford Abdallah Braimah, the Northern Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), on Friday said the late arrival of feeding grants to public boarding schools in the three northern regions was a systematic problem created in the colonial days and not with any present or past governments.

"The problem of late arrival of feeding grants to our schools has taken a political dimension and some people are apportioning blame to the NPP government, forgetting that the problem was there before the NPP came to power" he said.

Mr Braimah told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Tamale that the elite from the north who have an antidote to the problem should join hands irrespective of their political affiliation to solve the problem. He said politicians and civil society groups were condemning the problem instead of giving suggestions to help solve the problem to ensure that "Our children attend school without interruption in their academic calendar".

Mr Braimah said people needed to be told the truth and facts about the genesis of feeding grants for northern schools so that the future generations do not grow up to blame the NPP or the NDC. "It's not the NDC, NPP or any past government that cost the problem but the lopsided development in education of the north during colonial times that left the problem that we all have to fight". "I am totally against the late arrival of the feeding grants and at the same time disturbed that the issue has taken a political dimension," he said.

Mr Braimah suggested to MPs from the northern regions to lobby Parliament for a percentage of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETfund) and some HIPC funds.

The district assemblies could also set aside some contingency fund to assist the schools. The schools will repay when they receive their grants. 20 May 05