Monday, January 31, 2011

Support chiefs in maintaining peace — Abu (PAGE 42, JAN 31,2011)

Story: George Folley, Donwine

THE District Chief Executive (DCE) for Lawra in the Upper West Region, Mr Samson Abu, has appealed to the youth in the area to support their chiefs to maintain peace in the area.
He said that was the only way to ensure the socio– economic development of the district.
“I, therefore, implore you to direct your energy, time and other naturally endowed resources towards productive ventures and eschew all negative acts that have the tendency to ruin your lives,” he stressed.
Mr Abu made the call at separate ceremonies to outdoor Naa Thaddeus Laasa Duuru V and Naa Konogo Kuukao II, the newly enskinned chiefs of Monyupelle and Donwine, respectively, all in the Lawra District.
He commended the paramount chiefs of the Nandom and Lawra Traditional Areas, Naa Puore Puobe Chirr VII and Naa Puowele Karbo III, for their excellent counselling and guidance in the processes that led to the peaceful enskinment of the two chiefs.
He expressed the hope that the two paramount chiefs would continue to co-operate with the Lawra District Assembly to deliver on its plans for the benefit of the people in the district.
Mr Abu said this year would see a number of development projects to improve the lives of the people, stressing that education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation would still remain high on the agenda of the district.
Touching on the deadly Cerebro–Spinal Meningitis (CSM) disease which often broke out in the dry season, the DCE was happy that the Ministry of Health had already started putting measures in place to combat any outbreak.
“I will, however, wish to appeal to all of you to start taking some precautionary measures to prevent the disease. Let us avoid over-crowding and sleep in open or airy places when the warm season starts,”, he stressed.
Mr Abu encouraged the newly enskinned chiefs to be prepared to serve the people and be fair and firm in all dealings with their subjects in order to ensure peace and accelerated development in their traditional areas.

Wa East NDC supports DCE (PAGE 13, JAN 31, 2011)

Story: George Folley, Wa

The Wa East constituency executive of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has observed that there is no way the party can reclaim the Wa East constituency seat without Mr Ameen Salifu, the District Chief Executive of the area.
According to the party, this is due to the fact that Mr Ameen, who was the party’s parliamentary candidate in the 2008 election, had sacrificed a lot and been marketed, tried and tested enough to lead the NDC to victory in 2012.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the constituency executive of the party at Funsi, the district capital. The executive include the Chairman, Asuma Abdul Karim Braimah; Secretary, Issahaque Munawaru; Organiser, Iddrisu Kapori; Youth Organiser, Bawa Walma; Treasurer, Seidu Baba and the Women’s Organiser, Habiba Mahama.
The executive said any individual, group or organisations that wanted to distract the attention of the DCE to make him lose focus on his developmental agenda of building a better Wa East to serve their own parochial interest would definitely fail.
It said those who were discrediting the DCE were doing so out of desperation, as they all vied for the position and lost.
It mentioned three personalities — Yahaya Yakubu, the NDC Regional Propaganda Secretary, Issahaku Bawa Sumani, a former Constituency Vice Chairman of the party, and Mohammed Saani, a member of the expanded Constituency Executive — as allegedly behind the plot.
“This our great party and government cannot accommodate the syndrome of pull-him-down, so give us a break,” the statement said.
The executive advised the three personalities not to allow themselves to be used by certain persons to achieve their personal interest.
It stated that the Wa East District, which was created about four years ago, had not seen any accelerated development till the last two years when Mr Ameen took over as the DCE.
It advised all those with grievances to channel them through the party’s tried and tested mechanisms of conflict resolution.

Friday, January 28, 2011

33 Teaching, non-teaching staff honoured... In Lawra District (Page 11, Jan 28)

Story: George Folley, Lawra

THIRTY-THREE teaching and non–teaching staff in the Lawra district of the Upper West Region have been honoured at a ceremony at Lawra.
The ceremony covered the period 2007, 2008 and 2009.
The award winners were given television sets and radio cassette recorders. The ceremony also witnessed the distribution of a total of 164,562 exercise books and 2,000 new free school uniforms to school children in the district.
Addressing the function, the District Chief Executive, Mr Samson Abu said the assembly and its development partners had constructed a number of educational facilities in the district since 2009.
“In 2010 seven school blocks were constructed across the district and many others are currently under construction while GH¢68, 139.20 was also given to students of all categories as financial support for the 2009 /2010 academic year,” he added.
He said about 7,000 pieces of dual desks were also distributed to basic schools with additional 900 being assembled for distribution.
According to him, inspite of these, a lot more was needed to attain real quality education in the district and therefore called on all School Management Committees (SMCs), Parent- Teacher Associations (PTAs) and other stakeholders to contribute their quota to the betterment of the younger ones.
Mr Abu noted that the attainment of quality education would forever remain a mirage if the teacher who was at the centre of education was not well- resourced and motivated and it was in this light that the government had instituted the best teacher awards programme to reward teachers who excelled in their work and were dedicated and exhibited professionalism in their work.
He was not happy about the performance of students in the junior high schools in the area and therefore urged teachers to rededicate themselves and endeavour to eschew all forms of negative attitudes.
Mr Abu proposed a district education forum where all relevant stakeholders in the district would dialogue on the way forward.
The District Director of Education, Mr Andrew Kpan encouraged teachers in administration to also participate in the best teacher award competition.
He commended the award winners on their achievement and hoped this would spur them on to achieve greater heights.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

TENSION MOUNTS IN WA EAST NDC (PAGE 12, JAN 26, 2011)

TENSION is mounting within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Wa East constituency of the Upper West Region.
The situation has resulted in divisions with one group supporting the District Chief Executive(DCE), Mr. Ameen Salifu, and the other behind the assembly member for the Bulenga electoral area and an aspirant on the ticket of the NDC in the Wa East constituency, Mr Seidu Mohammed Saani.
Mr Salifu was the parliamentary candidate for the NDC in the 2008 general election.
An end of year party organised by the constituency executive last Saturday was almost marred when an alleged supporter of Mr Salifu, one Latif from Goripie attacked one of Mr Saani's followers called Muhamuda Umar.
Umar who sustained bruises on his face was treated and discharged at the Wa Islamic Hospital.
According to Umar, in the course of the party the master of ceremonies deliberately refused to call Mr Saani when it was time for optional speeches.
He said Mr Saani and his followers protested vehemently and decided to walk out of the programme, but were later prevailed upon by the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Ceaser Kale to come back.
“After being given the opportunity to talk, Mr Saani apologised to the dignitaries present and decided not to say anything further, after which we decided to go out again only for Latif to come from nowhere to attack and assault me,” he told the Daily Graphic.
Mr Umar accused the DCE for lack of respect and indicted him of engaging in acts that had affected the reputation of the party and called for disciplinary action to be taken against him.
He said the actions of the DCE contravened the 2008 Better Ghana manifesto of the NDC, particularly on transparency and accountable governance as well as corporate governance.
“Multiple efforts were made to bring him to order by the NDC regional and constituency executive including the recent committee tasked to assess the performances of DCE’s in the Upper West region but these have not deterred him from misconducting himself,” he added.
When contacted, however, the DCE described the allegations as fabricated lies being churned out by the faceless and unconstitutional group who wanted to dent his reputation.
The DCE said those who wrote to the committee tasked to assess the performance of DCE’s in the region and the Wa East in particular did so out of desperation as they vied for the position of the DCE and lost.
He called on the hierarchy of the party in the region to bring the group to order so as to pave the way for party unity and cohesion.
For his part, Mr Ceaser Kale told the Daily Graphic that moves were under way to reconcile all factions within the party before serious campaigning starts towards next year’s general elections.
That, he said, would enable the party to remain focused and recapture all lost seats in the region.