Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated that, when elected, the New Patriotic Party would transform the three campuses of the University of Development Studies in the three Northern Regions into autonomous public universities as contained in its 2012 Manifesto.

Speaking in Fumbisi while touring the Builsa South constituency on the 5th day of his tour of the Upper East Region, the NPP’s vice presidential candidate said “with the onset of the free secondary school programme of the NPP, there would be an obvious need for expansion at the Tertiary level to accommodate graduates from the Senior High, Technical and Vocational schools. In the North at the moment, we have only one Public University, the University of Development studies with three campuses – Wa, Navrongo and Nyankpala.

What the NPP would do as we have said in our manifesto is to convert these three campuses into separate universities so that each of the three Northern Regions can have one Public University. Each of the Campuses of the UDS already have an appreciable level of facilities and what we would do is to build on these existing facilities, expand and improve it to bring them up to the needed standards. Importantly, we would not set up universities only in name as our friends on the other side have done with the Universities they claim to have set up in the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions for propaganda purposes,” he said.

The NPP Vice-Presidential candidate stressed that the NPP was committed to introducing policies and programmes and enhancing existing ones to ensure that the people of Ghana see a marked transformation in their lives. He stressed that, ultimately, everything any government does must be to the benefit of the people of Ghana, and that this would preoccupy the Akufo-Addo government.

“What nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP are promising is to transform this country to see much improved performance in terms of our economy and in terms of our wellbeing because, ultimately, whatever u do in government, the people must feel the benefit of those policies and if you have policies that are not inuring to the benefit of the people and rather increasing the suffering of the people, then those policies cannot be right” he stated.

Dr. Bawumia mentioned that the NPP would tackle key issues in the area of education, agriculture, infrastructural development and health to better the lives of the people of the North.

He stated that in the area of agriculture for example, the Nana Akufo-Addo government would focus on the development of dams and irrigation facilities to boost agriculture and ensure that farmers in the North can farm throughout the year to make the North the breadbasket of Ghana and the West African region. He indicated that to further the NPP’s aim to boost agriculture, it would also set up mechanization centres across the North and all parts of the country to make tractors accessible for peasant farmers to reduce the burden of farming.