Poiya urged to address district’s needs first

By KESSIE TADAP
A GOILALA church representative has called on the Goilala MP to take development services to the people before embarking on building the trans-national highway to link the Goilala local level government to other provinces.
Moses Martin, of the Goilala For Jesus Ministry said: “When the highway is established, it will bring law and order problems due to the lack of  sustainable development projects as well as vital services such as education, health and agricultural projects to sustain the people, especially the youths from turning to crime on the highway.”
Martin said MP Matthew Poia should concentrate on bringing vital services such as education and health which were of poor standard and to develop economically sustainable projects for the people before worrying about the highway.
He said while the highway would be good and beneficial as an alternative and cheaper way of travelling and reaching services and transporting produce to market, it would benefit other provinces more than Goilala as they had agricultural produce and other commodities to get to markets while Goilala was still practising subsistence farming. 
He said Poia should be building schools and championing education, which was vital for development as well as changing the mindsets of the people to be partners in development.
“Poia must bring government services, investors and developers to bring development projects to the people instead of giving out cash to a selected village with no development on the ground to benefit the LLG.”
He said the highway would only benefit two of the districts, while Feuge, which had coffee and potential tourism sites, would not be connected.