Fight for Savannah regional capital begins, Salaga getting more tipped

As residents in the six new regions await the announcement of the President on where the capitals of the new regions will be, residents in these areas have began proposing capitals of the new regions.

Residents in the Savannah Region home and abroad ahead of the declaration have since the referendum considered two towns Salaga and Damango with Salaga getting more tipped by gonjalanders.

Below is a write up by a resident.

CAMPAIGN FOR A REGIONAL CAPITAL. THE EAST GONJA MUNICIPAL AGENDA.

Thankfully the Voting for the creation of New Region is over and peaceful and There are several enterprises proving that Savanna Region shall surely be History.

I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the decision makers that, My little concern is the establishment of the regional capital. Several factors affect regional development . Some factors affect directly while others influence indirectly but still they have an impact .Regional development is  a complex situation and should be viewed with a  multi- dimensional approach.

I have no doubt we have several towns within the Savanna enclave that have explicitly expressed appeal for their respective districts to be considered and the East Gonja Municipality is no exception.

From my inclination, the EAST GONJA MUNICIPAL stands out amongst the rest and my reasons will soon follow.

Firstly , the strategic location of a regional capital has a big advantage , in terms of connectivity land ,air and water . Following along the vein of location theory, regional Physical and economic geography, space and distances between points of production and consumption may be treated as endogenous factors with parameters specified for accessibility, proximity, network effects, spatial diversity and density including other measures of  spatial contiguity.
These as a mix determines the trajectory and resilience of economic growth of a region.

The east Gonja Municipal has the largest land mark not only in the Savanna but Ghana at large. The geography of the East Gonja Municipal is potent and flat enough to accommodate all kinds of investments be it agriculture, industrial infrastructure, Airports and Fishing ports( Having the largest portions of the Volta lake linking it to Yeji, Yapei, Buipe, Kete Karachi and all the way to the Southern Volta) and is potent for all kinds of investment including tourism.

Market and proximity is a major pull factor wherein all other localisation factors as skill, capital and raw materials are directed. Corporations generally choose locations which are profitable and these are those which have effected as pull in economic history, otherwise they will not open even their sale outlet in other places. Salaga again in this case is deserving considering the point aforementioned. Salaga is more closer to Tamale and the national Capital than all the districts under consideration.

It wasn’t by accident the East Gonja had a Municipal Status, before a district is given such a status, it might have met certain physical and economic factors before and by this, it wouldn’t make sense to jump a Municipal to consider a district Capital as regional Capital.

Availability of natural resources is a also a deciding factor , sometimes in terms of productivity and sustainability and Salaga again can’t be left out because we have a lot of natural Resources yet to be explored.

Some of the districts under consideration may have natural resources equally but sustainability plays a major role in this instance. Let’s take Damango for example. The forest reserve surrounding the Damango Districts is enough a disqualification factor if only we are interested in protecting diversity.

The Mole National park is a major resource that requires serious protection and given Damango a regional capital means, there will be expansion and the net effect of this expansions means the forest reserve will be lost in the long run if not immediately.

All in all there is an increasing recognition that history matters;that a biological metaphor is much more insightful than a mechanistic one; that scaling laws are as important in determining the growth rate of city-regions as they are in regulating the metabolic rates of biological organisms.

On this note Damango will be better off being a traditional capital than a regional capital as this is the only way the culture and diversity can be preserved.

Human resource availability depending on the skill also influence regional development . Indisputably, East Gonja Municipal is the most populated enclave with most educated and skilled labor. This by extension confirms the status of a MUNICIPAL.

Looking at all the districts under consideration, East Gonja Municipal is equipped with unique advantage. Thus must be considered as the SAVANNA REGIONAL CAPITAL.