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BONGO: Use festivals to propel development – Regional Minister

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”.

Date Created : 4/29/2019 7:13:39 AM : Story Author : Peter Atogewe Wedam/Ghanadistricts.com

“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”.

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.

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.

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.