Tamale, Jan. 30, GNA - Mr Stephen Sumani Nayina, the President's ministerial nominee for the Northern Region, on Friday said he would focus on education, road development and poverty reduction to help bridge the north-south development gap when approved by Parliament. Mr Nayina said human resource development was the most important component of every meaningful development and as such, he would do everything possible to ensure that every child of school-going age had access to quality education to help reduce poverty among the communities.

He was speaking to the press after the national Democratic Congress (NDC) youth groups from various constituencies in the region had called on him at his office to congratulate him for his nomination. Mr Nayina, who is the Northern Regional Director of the Department of Children of the Women and Children's Affairs Ministry noted the poor nature of roads linking most of the districts from the regional capital Tamale and said it was worrying. He promised to facilitate the rehabilitation of roads in order to boost economic activities in the region and alleviate poverty. Mr Nayina said the region was basically an agricultural zone and noted that in the mid 1970s, the region was the breadbasket of the country.

He said the region still had the potential to feed not only the country but also the West-African sub-region adding: "It needs appropriate interventions including the construction of small-scale dams, to ensure an all-year round farming to realise this goal". On peace, Mr Nayina said having lived in the region for the greater part of his life he had come to know the people as peace-loving. "I am saying this to dispel the erroneous impression that people from this part of the country do not appreciate the need for peace. "What the people are angered about is the lack of justice and fairness that has been created in the system. "I pledge to work assiduously to ensure that every person, irrespective of ones political affiliation, is treated equally and fairly according to the law".