Ever since, following the National Democratic Congress’ massive defeat in the 2016 general election, Mr. Abraham Amaliba publicly stated that he was determined to ensure that the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) failed in its noble attempt to raise the living standards of Ghanaian citizens over the next four years, I have completely written him off as a critic who has any meaningful contribution to make towards the development of the country.

And so I don’t know why Mr. Amaliba would so cavalierly presume to democratically represent the majority view or opinion on the question of whether the country is warm to the idea of the creation of more regions in the country (See “We Don’t Need New Regions – Amaliba” ClassfmOnline.com / Modernghana.com 8/19/17).

We also need to remind Mr. Amaliba who, by the way, miserably failed to clinch a parliamentary seat in the Bawku municipality, of the Upper-East Region, that the ideological copycat Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC), in the lead-up to the 2016 general election, also promised in the party’s manifesto to create more regions.

And so the logical question to ask the Legal and Communications team member of the NDC, is precisely what makes former President Mahama’s decision to create more regions in the country, in addition to the already existing 10 regions, any more legitimate than that of Nana Akufo-Addo, the original advocate of this idea?

Mr. Emmanuel KyerematengAgyarko, the New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Ayawaso-West-Wuogon, has aptly classified Mr. Amaliba’s impudent cynicismas one of abject hypocrisy, but I choose to call it the sort of arrogance and crass sense of entitlement that afflicts most of the NDC apparatchiks, and that comes with unduly long and illegitimate entrenchment in the seat of governance.

I have already amply presented my reasons for supporting the creation of more regions in a previous column, so I would not waste the reader’s precious time in rehashing the same here.

Suffice it, however, to note in passing that the creation of more regional capitals would healthily increase the focal points of development in the country, and make it easier to evenly spread out the human and capital resources of the country.

Indeed, as one critic pointed out to me not very long ago, for example, until the creation of Sunyani as the capital of the Brong-Ahafo Region, formerly called Western Ashanti/Asante, the focal point of development was Kumasi.

The creation of the Brong-Ahafo Region, with Sunyani as its capital, would open up the entire hitherto territorial adjunct of Asante Region Proper to more rapid development and urbanization than ever before.

The latter occurrence would also speed up the development of Brong-Ahafo rural communities. But what is even more significant to highlight is the fact that the new regions being created are not strictly based on ethnic lines.

Rather, they are based more strictly on administrative manageability and population pressure on our collective national and natural human and capital resources, in much the same way that the former Upper Region was split into the Upper-East and Upper-West regions; and, likewise, the former Eastern Region into the Eastern and Greater-Accra Regions.

It must be obvious, by now, to Mr. Amaliba, who disconsolately cried foul in the wake of his withering parliamentary election defeat in Bawku – or was it Bolgatanga? – bitterly complained that he had lost the 2016 NDC parliamentary primary because he did not belong to the right ethnic group – that he does not have much credibility and respect even in his own ethnic and residential locality to presume to be an authoritative judge of the needs, wants and aspirations of the average Ghanaian citizen.

He can and, indeed, does have the inalienable right to speak for himself and, perhaps, for his immediate family members and relatives as well. But that is about the extent of his authority and/or influence.