AFIGYA KWABRE TO HOLD EASTER HOMECOMING (PAGE 17, MARCH 31, 2010)

ATHE young Afigya Kwabre District Assembly in the Ashanti Region wants to make the most out of the coming Easter celebration.
On occasions such as this, when many communities plan and organise various activities to support their development initiatives, the district assembly is scheduled to hold its first-ever homecoming event for the district.
Realising that the people cannot rely on the central government alone to provide all their needs, the assembly hopes a homecoming event, which is one sure way of putting the district on a firm ground in its development process.
Homecoming is one event that many communities use to portray what they have as a way of attracting investment.
It is therefore not surprising that Afigya Kwabre has decided to organise the first-ever homecoming on Easter Monday, April 5, this year, at Kodie, the district capital, in order to sell the district to the outside world.
It would definitely be a fitting event, considering the challenges facing the district.
On that day, the district assembly, in conjunction with the traditional authorities, would also honour some citizens who have contributed to raise the image of the district. 
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Kaakyire Oppong Kyekyeku, did not name citizens to be honoured when he spoke with this writer.
“We want to keep it to ourselves in order not to take the beauty out of the event,” he said.
The district has a number of people in responsible positions, and on that day people like Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, (former First Lady,) Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah and Mr Owusu Ansah, both Members of Parliament (MPs), and Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, the General Manager (Newspapers) of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, would be in attendance.
“Our illustrious citizens are role models to the young ones and we need to bring them home for the young ones to see them,” the DCE said.
As a young district, Afigya Kwabre is confronted with a myriad of challenges, some of which look difficult to overcome, considering the resource base of the assembly.
Three years into the creation of the district, the assembly has, for instance, serious accommodation problems, which need to be addressed to encourage staff to stay and work there.
Some school infrastructure and roads are also in bad state, calling for immediate repairs.
Efforts by the assembly to use its share of the Common Fund to tackle many of the projects have been very unsuccessful, because it is not enough to cover all projects in the district.
These and others are the reasons why the assembly wants to use the homecoming to lay bare to the citizens the challenges facing the district.
“When the citizens come, they would see the real challenges themselves and, together, we will see how to overcome them and go ahead to market our district,” Mr Oppong Kyekyeku said.
On the occasion of the homecoming, a technical committee would be constituted to work out modalities for the setting up of a rural bank for the district.
The DCE believes this is a laudable initiative that will yield benefits to the people.
The district provides opportunities for investment, but attracting them has been the problem. Consequently, the results of the homecoming must show positively in the investment area.