USE FESTIVALS TO PROPEL DEV’T – UE REGIONAL MINISTER April 20, 2019
The Bissa community in the Pusiga
District of the Upper East Region of Ghana, has celebrated its annual Zekula
Festival under the theme; “Unifying the Youth for Peaceful Co-existence Through
Culture and Education”.
“Zekula” in the Bissa language,
simply means unity and thus, the festival under the auspices of the Bissa
traditional authorities and the Bissa Development Association [BDA], is
celebrated annually as a convergence event for all Bissas both in and outside
Pusiga District as well as Bissas in the diaspora, to meet for familiarisation
and deliberations to enhance development in the area.
The 2019 edition of the
well-patronised festival, marked the 15th in the series. It was held
at Kulungugu, a vital town that cannot be discounted in the narration of
Ghanaian history and which has become the regular grounds for the event for
over a decade now.
Upper East Regional Minister, Hon.
Paulina Patience Abayage in her address as Guest of Honour at the festival
observed that, nations and several tribes all over the world, have used
festivals and culture as tools to propel their development. She therefore urged
the Bissa community to follow suit stressing that “as a people, you cannot make
any meaningful progress or gains in your lives if you do not know where you are
coming from, what you are made of and what unites you as people of one kind”.
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| UE Regional Min., Paulina Patience Abayage giving her address |
Hon. Abayage also noted that, the
preservation of culture for development stems from the fact that, the ancestors
of the Ghanaian left behind rich moral values and traditions such as
discipline, respect, unity, love, hard work and honesty which are also meant to
protect the society from anti-social tendencies that could push the society’s
name into disrepute.
According to the Regional Minister
who was also one time Ghana’s Ambassador to Italy, the Nana Addo-led government
had taken giant strides to develop Ghana taking into consideration the
potentials, cultural dynamics and educational backgrounds of the citizenry. She
said one example, was the successful implementation of the Nation Builders
Corps [NABCO] which has since recruited and deployed over 100,000 unemployed
graduate youth into modules including Civic Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Educate Ghana
and Feed Ghana among others. She said further that, the NABCO programme has
succeeded in tapping requisite human resource for the country’s development
which was hitherto wasting away.
The Regional Minister also observed
that as a nation, Ghana required the services of competently trained
professionals in order to judiciously exploit the country’s natural resources and
other endowments in such a manner that will be sustainable for future
generations. On this score, she entreated all parents to take advantage of
Government’s Free Senior High school programme and to put their children in
school especially, the girl-child.
On pro-poor interventions
undertaken by government, she mentioned the one village – one dam policy, the
Planting for Food and Jobs programme and the Rearing for Food and Jobs
programme, which is earmarked to commence this year, as just a few which are
targeted at the rural poor to help better their living standards. She also
encouraged communities to endeavour to initiate viable community projects as
government would be willing to help complete such projects.
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| A women's group performing a dance |
Madam Abayage’s address also
touched on the current wave of globalisation which brings in its wake, vices
such as drug abuse, religious intolerance, teenage pregnancies and alcohol
abuse. She thus warned against wholesale adoption of the influence of
globalisation since not all aspects of it were suitable for the African and
Ghanaian context.
In his welcome address earlier, the
Regent of Kulungugu, Naba Halidu Barike thanked government for the various
development projects in his traditional area. Notwithstanding this, he called
for the expansion of electricity coverage in the area, the provision of water
and sanitation facilities, a quarters for staff of the Kulungugu Health Centre,
a dam for his community and a senior high school to absorb the numerous junior
high school graduates in the area and neighbouring villages.
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| A Cross Section of Chiefs at the festival |
Meanwhile in a speech read for him,
Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II
acknowledged the contributions of Bissas to the socio-economic development of
the Bawku traditional area. He also noted the ability of the Bissa people to
influence issues of all kinds to achieve positive results and commended the
tribe and other sister-tribes for helping keep peace in the area.
Naba Abugrago said his people were
predominantly farmers and have been doing well over the years until the “fall
army worm” attacked and devastated farms over the last two years making
majority of farmers to lose out. He therefore advised farmers in the Pusiga
district to consult agric extension officers in their farming activities while
urging them to adhere strictly to technical advice they will receive from the
agric officers.
Guests including the Inner Cities
and Zongo Development Minister, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Deputy Minister of
Justice and Attorney General, Hon. Joseph D. Kpemka and Bawku Central Member of
Parliament, Hon. Mahama Ayariga as well as, Mr. Emmanuel Bombande, former
Executive Director for the West African Peace Network [WANEP], were all among
dignitaries that witnessed this year’s celebrations. Meanwhile, other
guests from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Togo including traditional chiefs and
security commanders also attended the Zekula festival.
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