VARSITY OF BA (1B, NOV 9)

PREPARATIONS are underway for the establishment of a public university in the Brong-Ahafo Region.
The President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, who dropped the hint at a durbar in Sunyani to climax the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the region at the weekend, said the government had set up a committee to work out the technical details for the establishment of the university which would run major courses in Energy and Natural Resources.
President Mills also hinted that a number of chiefs had pledged to release plots of land to be used for the construction of facilities which would accommodate the staff and students of the university.
The durbar attracted chiefs of the various paramountcies in the region, as well as high-ranking government functionaries.
According to President Mills, the government considered education as the key to the nation's present and future development.
He said the well-being of the country would be dependent on the existence of a standing corps of skilled workers in various disciplines especially the sciences, who would be inventive and innovative.
President Mills said the government was aware that the higher challenges of tomorrow could be dealt with to a reasonable extent by well trained and educated workforce drawn from all parts of the country.
He said the world was undergoing rapid transformation in the fields of science and technology and the only way the country could catch up with the rest of the world was for the government to provide educational facilities for the benefit of the people, especially the youth.
President Mills implored the chiefs and people of the region to use the occasion to take stock of their achievements ,the tasks and challenges which still undermined its total development.
He said anniversaries were normally used by people to draw a balance sheet for their lives in order to ascertain whether their achievements were more than their shortcomings or vice-versa.
President Mills said the region had come a long way since its establishment by the first President of Ghana by way of producing some of the most finest and astounding personalities in the country.
For his part, the Bring Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo chronicled the feats that the region had chalked up in the various sectors since its creation.
He, however, conceded that there were still some formidable challenges to be overcome.
The regional minister said he was hopeful that the region, which boasted of several brilliant personalities who could be found in reputable institutions in the country and elsewhere in the world would be
mobilised to adequately address the challenges.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo said the region was endowed with massive natural resources which would be harnessed to generate income to be channelled into other sectors as well as offer employment opportunities for the people, especially the youth.
Other speakers at the function were the President of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs, Osahene Kwaku Aterkyi 11, Mrs Cecilia Johnson, a member of the Council and Nana Kwadwo Nyarko, chairman of the Anniversary Planning Committee.