DURBAR CLIMAXES 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF U/E REGION (SPREAD)

Story: George Folley Quaye & Charles Benoni Okine

The Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has appealed to the three northern Regional Houses of Chiefs to consider a joint meeting to find ways of bringing peace to the area.
He pointed out that the negative perception that seemed, to be gaining grounds that the northern part of the country was a conflict zone must be reversed.
The chiefs, he said, should see what they could do especially in persuading “our brothers and sisters in Bawku and other areas in northern Ghana to give peace a chance”.
Alhaji Aliu was speaking at a grand durbar to climax activities marking the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Upper West Region.
The durbar attracted people from all walks of life including representatives of political parties and a delegation from Burkina Faso.
The Vice-President noted that in spite of a few flash points in the Upper West Region, it had been relatively peaceful, a situation he attributed to the commitment of the people to respect the rule of law and to resolve issues amicably among themselves.
“We should continue to remind ourselves that the majority of our people are faced with poverty and low standards of living, which are reflecting in the high rate of migration of the youth to seek illusive greener pastures elsewhere,” he added.
The Vice-President said the Municipal and District assemblies in the region owed it a duty to come up with relevant and useful projects and programmes that could address this negative trend.
He announced that a special $100 million agriculture programme, sponsored by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) would soon start in the three northern regions.
The programme, which has three components of infrastructural development, technical support to farmers and the organisation of farmer groups to access loans from the banks, would also cover parts of the Brong Ahafo Region.
According to Alhaji Aliu Mahama, the agriculture sector in particular must be looked at seriously, especially in the provision of small-scale facilities.
He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to take advantage of the recent reliefs and initiatives announced by the government for the provision of more tractors and subsidies on fertilisers to increase agricultural productivity.
He was happy that the Upper West Region had benefited from a number of infrastructural projects in recent times and said work on the Bole-Bamboi road was progressing steadily.
“Furthermore, plans are almost complete for work to begin on the tarring of the Sawla-Fufulso road to ease the burden of people from the Upper West Region commuting to and from the Northern Region,” he said.
Alhaji Aliu Mahama announced that a contract had been signed for the tarring of the Nadowli-Lawra-Hamile road while bids had also been evaluated for the tarring of the Wa-Han-Tumu and the Tumu-Sassili roads.
With regard to the educational sector, the Vice-President said the Wa Polytechnic had received tremendous infrastructural development while the Faculty for Integrated Development Studies (FIDS) of the University for Development Studies (UDS) was also seeing development.
He paid glowing tribute to all stalwarts of the region who had projected the name of the region to great heights and advised the current generation to take inspiration from them.
The Regional Minister, Mr George Hikah Benson, for his part, appealed to the people to let the celebration serve as a rallying point for the promotion of peace and unity.
He observed that although the region had made considerable progress in infrastructural development, more needed to be done.
He, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders, including public-spirited individuals, to assist the region in its quest to improve upon its infrastructural development.
Awards were given to those who had contributed in diverse ways to the development of the region. They included former President Jerry John Rawlings, President J. A. Kufuor, Vice-President Aliu Mahama and all former regional ministers, including Mr Ambrose Dery.