Regional News of Thursday, 23 January 2003

Source: gna

Volta Region deserves a state university

Mr Kosi Kedem, member of Parliament for Hohoe South (NDC), on Wednesday asked government to establish a University in the Volta Region to accelerate its development.

"All that this statement is asking for is that the acute in-balance in the geo-political distribution of state universities in Ghana should without delay be addressed."

The member who delivered the first statement in the third session of the third Parliament based his arguments on historical antecedence.

"A careful historical analysis of the geo-political distribution of these universities is rather interesting and instructive.

The University of Ghana is located in the former Gold Coast Colony. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is located in the former Northern Territories"

He said University College of Education is located in the former Gold Coast Colony while the Western University College is located in Former Gold Coast.

According to Mr.Kedem," the same statistics have also revealed that the Former Togoland under United Kingdom trusteeship later incorporated in the trans-Volta Togoland and now known as the Volta Region has no university allocated to it."

He said even when Ghana is reduced to into regions, Volta Region is one of the few regions without a university or a university campus.

"The people of the Volta Region have always requested for this in-balance in the distribution of universities to be corrected. Unfortunately, successive governments since independence have ignored this genuine request."

He said the people know and appreciate the importance of university education and they would do everything possible to sustain a university if established.

"The region has more than adequate qualitative human capital to man any university established in the Region.

Mr Kedem said the absence of a University has resulted in the heavy drift of human capital to other parts of Ghana.

Mr Victor Gbeho, Independent Anlo, said such a University could specialise in hydrology and Chemical Engineering because of the Region's expansive salt fields and large water bodies.