FEMALE ASPIRANTS PREPARE FOR ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS (PAGE 11, SEPT 30, 2010)

A former Presiding Member of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly Madam Agnes Atayila, has announced her intention to contest the up-coming assembly election in the Soe-Yipala Electoral Area.
The aspirant, who is a nutrition officer, was first elected assemblywoman for the electoral area in the Bolgatanga Municipality in 2000-2006, and elected the Presiding Member of the assembly from 2004 to 2006.
From 2005-2006, she was the Regional Representative for the Upper East Region at the National Executive Council of the National Association of Local Authority, Ghana (NALAG).
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga, Madam Atayila said her decision to seek re-election to the assembly was due to her desire to serve her people, especially the unfortunate illiterate women who look up to her for inspiration.
“I believe I have an unfinished agenda in terms of development for my community and I am seeking to re-enter the assembly to work for the interest of my people”, she said.
“As I speak to you today, I am no more an assemblywoman for the area, but I still attend to the needs of my electorate who call on me at home on a daily basis. They still see in me a leader who is always available to hear their concerns. That is my motivation for seeking re-election to lead my people”, she added.
Outlining her vision, Madam Atayila said if given the nod she would engage the youth and women in her electoral area in regular meetings to strategise and map out the development needs of the community.
Her major concern, however, is what she terms “attempts by political parties to thwart efforts of women contestants” by playing out the partisan cards during the election and appealed to political parties to desist from turning the district level elections into a platform for partisan politics.
Madam Atayila is currently the chairperson of the Upper East Regional Cultural Advisory Committee of the Centre for National Culture. In 1999, she was elected the Chairperson of the Board of Governors to the Bolgatanga Girls Secondary School.
She has special skills in community mobilisation, organising trainer of trainers programmes, counselling and inter personal communication, gender and development and rears livestock. In 1997, she was adjudged the Bolgatanga Best District Livestock Farmer.
Among other things, she has facilitated the formation of 126 women support groups in Builsa, Bolgatanga, Bongo and Talensi/Nabdam districts. She also acquired four grinding mills from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for women in the Builsa District to enhance their income generation activities.
She was a District Programme Officer for the World Food Programme (WFP) activities for supplementary feeding for children under 5 years and Breast Feeding Mothers whilst serving in the Bongo District Health Directorate. She was also the focal person for the Catholic Relief Service Food for Survival in the same Bongo District.

Ms Theresa Akosua Serwaah Tettey, a 39-year-old language teacher at the Anfoega Senior High School in the Kpando District, intends to contest the district assembly elections in the Dzigbe-Torkor Electoral Area in the Kpando District. She is optimistic of defeating the incumbent assemblyman for the area.
According to her she has demonstrated her competence and capabilities over the years which had made her a better candidate to be elected as their next representative in the assembly.
She said if given the nod, she would lobby for support to improve sanitation and facilities such as places of convenience and potable water for the community, under the Community Water and Sanitation Programme .
She said since women constituted more than 50 per cent of the country’s population, there was the need to increase their representation at the various levels of the decision-making process to enable them to make meaningful contribution to national development.
She said if given the nod, she would make meaningful contributions to discussions during assembly sittings to help design positive projects and programmes to benefit the community and society as a whole.

Madam Agnes Akusika Mireku is a 59-year-old businesswoman who intends to contest the district assembly elections in the Agudzi-Bame Electoral Area in the Kpando District of the Volta Region. She said her desire was to tackle the challenges facing the area in respect of youth unemployment, adding that with the help of non-governmental organisations and the Department of Women, she would assist the youth to explore opportunities to open up employment avenues for them to make them productive.
She said she would help women to access small loan facilities to undertake development projects and indicated that she would also lobby for a borehole to be drilled to facilitate the cultivation of okro and garden eggs to generate income to bring development to the area.
She also said she would dialogue with teachers and communicate their problems to the appropriate quarters and encourage teachers and pupils to take education seriously.

The aspirant for the Nkonya -Wurupong Electoral Area in the Biakoye District, Madam Florence Leticia Mensah, is a 53 -year old businesswoman. Her aim is to contest the assembly elections to promote the interest of the people.
She said her area of concern was to improve on sanitation facilities in the community with the provision of public places of convenience, check the negative behaviour of some people who ease themselves on “free range” which posed a health hazard to the people.
She said if given the nod, she would collaborate with relevant organisations and individuals to rehabilitate school buildings in the electoral area and also improve on conditions at the local market to boost business activities.
Madam Mensah said she was also concerned about the bad nature of the road linking Tornu and would help extend electricity to more communities in the area, stressing that with the support of the assembly, members of the community and other organisations, she would find workable solutions to these problems.
The aspirant also indicated her intention to mount intensive public education campaign to encourage the youth to desist from social vices, some of which resulted in teenage pregnancy, child labour and truancy.

UPPER EAST YOUTH HONOUR DR AWORNOR-WILLIAMS (PAGE 42, SEPT 29, 2010)

THE Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr John Koku Awoonor-Williams, has been honoured in recognition of his contribution towards health service delivery in the region.
Youth in the region presented the award to him in recognition of his sterling leadership that has led to the transformation of the health sector in the region.
Dr Awoonor-Williams was presented with a commemorative inscription, a citation and adorned with two smocks christened “Amaletinga” meaning a good, selfless person and inspirational leader in Grunne language.
The citation acknowledged the reduction of maternal and child mortality as well as the reduction of the prevalent rate of tuberculosis and other communicable diseases under his stewardship.
The award was presented to him after a procession in the principal streets of Bolgatanga by the youth to demonstrate their love for the man who assumed duty as the Regional Health Director two-years ago.
Mr Michael Zuri, a youth leader and one of the organisers of the event, said Dr Awoonor Williams was being recognised and appreciated for offering quality leadership which had seen the transformation of the Regional Health Directorate and the Regional and District Hospitals in the region as well as improvement in staff output.
“Although you have been in the region for a short period, we have noticed the effective and efficient improvement in the health sector in the region and we the youth think you deserve to be honoured,” Mr Zuri said.
The Regional Internal Auditor of the Ghana Health Service, Mr Peter Larry commended the youth for taking the initiative to honour Dr Awoonor-Williams.
He recalled the success story of the Regional Director of Health Services during his stay in Nkwanta as a District Director of Health Services, adding that it was not surprising that Dr Awoonor-Williams had excelled in his current position.
Responding to the gesture by the youth, Dr Awoonor-Williams, a regular contributor to Daily Graphic’s health page, said he was grateful for the honour done him.
Dr Awoonor-Williams, who was close to shedding tears, said so far as he remained the Regional Director of Health Services, development of the health sector would spread to every district and sub-district in the region.
“In every society, there are bound to be differences but when these differences occur, you have the chance to solve them by dialogue,” he said, adding that his administration was amenable to constructive criticisms.

90 VOLUNTEERS ATTEND DISASTER MANAGEMENT COURSE (PAGE 35, SEPT 29, 2010)

THE National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has embarked on capacity building exercise for Volunteer Group (DVG) in four zones in the Garu-Tempane District in the Upper East Region.
The programme is aimed at preparing the DVGs to enable them to train people in the local communities in disaster management, disaster risk reduction, fire prevention and safety.
Some of the topics treated during the training included creation of fire belts, benefits of tree planting, how to handle common epidemics, and bush fire management control systems.
Ninety volunteers were selected from Basyonde, Woriyanga, Kongo and Akarafor the programme.
The District Co-ordinator of NADMO, Ms Grace Nkaw, charged the DVGs to justify the huge investment on disaster management being made by educating their communities on disaster management.
She underscored the effects of climate change and urged the DVGs to implore their communities to minimise the activities of indiscriminate tree-felling and bush burning, which were rampant in the district.
Ms Nkaw expressed the hope that the training would enable the DVGs to tackle common epidemics such as malaria, anthrax, as well as other diseases and prevent them from spreading.
The Garu-Tempane Area Development Programme Manager of World Vision, Mr Godfred Yelewere, reminded the volunteers of their primary responsibility of reducing disasters in their communities.
He urged them to be committed to the task they had taken upon themselves.
Mr Yelewere implored the DVGs to identify and recognise the common disasters prevalent in their communities and apply local knowledge of the people in addressing disasters, but not impose what they knew on the people.
Resource persons, who were drawn from the District Fire Service, District Forestry Office, Disease Control Officer, took the participants through the training programme.

BUILD MULTI-PURPOSE DAM FOR HYDRO IN NORTH...Urges Parliamentary Committee on Employment (PAGE 13, SEPT 29, 2010)

THE Parliamentary Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises has suggested to the government to build a multi-purpose dam for both hydro and irrigation for Agriculture in the Upper East Region to harvest the huge volumes of water that occasionally cause flooding and the subsequent loss of lives and properties.
The committee made the suggestion when it toured some communities affected by the recent floods in the Northern part of the country.
It would be recalled that the recent floods in the three Northern Regions following days of heavy rainfall and the opening of the sluice gates of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso, devastated dozens of farmlands and inundated several communities along the White Volta basin.
In the Upper East Region, at least 12 lives were lost as a result of people trying to harvest their crops with the aid of canoes and collapsing switch houses.
The team was accompanied by Dr Sulley Gariba, a Policy Advisor at the Office of the Vice President, and Mr Alhassan Azong, a minister of state. According to the team, the tour also formed part of an overall development programme under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SAPA).
The Vice Chairman of the Committee, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the construction of the dam would provide a lasting solution to the annual floods.
He appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, go to the aid of the communities devastated by the disaster and make available to them relief items such as roofing sheets, to enable them to cope with the situation.
The ranking member of the Committee, Mrs Akosua Frema Opare, said the tour had provided the MPs with first hand information on the situation, adding that it would guide them in their deliberation in the house and also aid in advising the government on the way forward.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, assisted by the Regional Co-ordinator of NADMO, Mr Patrick Akake, and the Chief Executives for Bolgatanga, Talensi-Nabdam and Bawku West, Mr Epsona Ayamga, Ms Vivienne Anafo and Mr. Moro Adams Anaba respectively took the parliamentary team round the affected areas.

4 COMMUNITIES REFUSE TO BE ENUMERATED ...In Kassena-Nankana West District (SPREAD, SEPT 28, 2010)

Members of four communities in the Kassena-Nankana West District are still reluctant to participate in this year’s Population and Housing Census, until certain anomalies identified are corrected.
The people of Sirigu, Mirigu, Kandiga, and Nabango in the Kassena-Nankana West District are dissatisfied about the fact that their communities have been coded under the Kassena-Nankana East District for enumeration instead of the Kassena-Nankana West District where they rightly belong.
They are also calling on the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to ensure that trained enumerators from the Kassena-Nankana West District are allowed to conduct the exercise in the four communities instead of sending enumerators from the Kassena-Nankana East District to do the exercise.
Despite assurance from the regional statistician that their concerns would be addressed, the people maintained that until the codes given to the area were changed to reflect their status as communities under the Kassena-Nankana West District, they would not participate in the national exercise.
The Chairman of the Nabango Citizens Association, Mr John Akunsigiya Nsoh, told the Daily Graphic that capturing the population of the area under another district would in the future affect the developmental needs of the people.
They are, therefore, calling on the GSS to rectify the anomaly.
“If the problem is not corrected, no enumerator will be allowed in our communities to work, ” he said.
Following a petition raised by the people, the GSS has withdrawn enumerators from the Kassena-Nankana East District initially sent to conduct the exercise and replaced them with enumerators trained in the Kassena-Nankana West District.
But residents of these four communities are maintaining their grounds not to participate in the exercise until the codes given to them are changed to reflect their status as being part of the Kassena-Nankana West District.
When contacted, the Upper East Regional Statistician, Mr Festus Manuh, urged the communities to allow the exercise to go on after which the anomaly identified would be corrected.
He explained that the error might have arisen due to mapping difficulties but said after the enumeration, there would be an opportunity to correct the error identified.
Meanwhile, at the time of filing this report, the Kassena-Nankana West District Census Implementation Committee has scheduled a meeting with opinion leaders, assembly members and chiefs from the four communities to find an amicable solution to the problem.
At exactly 12 midnight last Sunday, the 2010 Population and Housing Census began to collect detailed statistics on the size of the population for effective planning.
The two-week exercise, which will end on October 12, is also to collect data on the composition and distribution of Ghana’s population, the residential accommodation and facilities in use.

WIDOWHOOD RITES DEHUMANISE WOMEN (PAGE 11, SEPT 28, 2010)

AS a professional Nurse, a widow and a native of northern Ghana, Madam Batty Ayagiba, believes that under no circumstances should widows be subjected to dehumanising and culturally related human rights abuses.
To champion the fight against dehumanising widowhood practices in northern Ghana, Madam Ayagiba has set up the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM), to ensure that the multiple human rights violations suffered by widows and their children in the name of culture are done away with.
In some communities in northern Ghana, the belief in widowhood rites still remains widespread and a number of widows and their children suffer from human rights abuses. The continuing practice of these violations in the name of culture put widows and orphans into mental, physical, and emotional torture.
The main aim of WOM is, therefore, to end the cruel, dehumanising and discriminatory cultural practices that do not help anybody.
Madam Ayagiba said for the past 10 years, WOM had been working to educate women, chiefs, elders, opinion leaders etc. to know their rights and refuse to bow to negative culture.
Some people believe that widowhood rites primarily are aimed at driving away the ghosts of the deceased. Under the practice, widows are forced to strip naked in public and undergo other unpleasant exercises that abuse their right to dignity.
Narrating the ordeal these women go through when she delivered a paper on “Culture and Human Rights, Focus on Widowhood Rites in Upper East Region” organised by the Cultural Initiative Support programme , she said those who refused to go through the process were expelled together with their children from their homes.
According to Madam Ayagiba the practice started when a woman lost her husband. “When that happens, an elder in the house goes out to consult a soothsayer on the cause of the death especially when the death is considered ‘sudden’. “Those who perpetrate this act forget or are ignorant that some sicknesses like hypertension, CSM and heart attack can also cause sudden death”, she said
According to Madam Ayagiba, “normally it is concluded that the widow killed her husband through adultery or unfaithfulness. A male or female ritualist who is usually a person that has lost a spouse and claims to know all the rites that the widow must go through is contacted. Upon the arrival of the ritualist, the widow removes the cloth she wears and these cloths are for the ritualist while she then wears leaves”.
She said “this means if the widow has only one cloth it is collected by the ritualist as custom demands. Concoction is given to the widow to drink to prove that she did not kill her husband. The concoction is made of leaves worn by a previous widow during her husband’s funeral. It is normally collected by the ritualist; burnt and boiled and given to another widow to drink. She then wears leaves and sit on a mat. She may be lucky if she has a good mat. If the women are more than one, they all gather in one room. She is asked to hold a calabash and a knife at the same time”.
She continued “in some communities the widow does not drink water in that yard until the husband is buried. If she is lucky to have a good friend, the friend goes to a nearby house to fetch some drinking water for her if she is thirsty.
“But in most cases the people become so occupied with the funeral of the dead man that they forget about the widow. The widow is seated there with the ritualist like a teacher. When they are to bury the man, she is accompanied outside to where the corpse is, to see the husband before it is taken out”.
“She is served food in the calabash she is holding, and as she eats, some of the food may drop on the floor inviting ants to her mat; but if an ant should bite her she must say it. Otherwise she will die (she is threatened).
“The soothsayer is consulted again to know why she was bitten by an ant. It is always the woman who is not faithful to the husband and this has caused the biting of the ant. It is noted as a disgrace on the part of the widow that she was bitten by an ant when the husband died”.
According to Madam Ayagiba, the widow is sent outside wearing only the leaves around the pubic part to bath and eat at a refuse dump. As she walks out, the crowd sees her nakedness and some widows confirm that, the practice is so dehumanising and affect them emotionally and psychologically and makes them develop a low self esteem.”
The hair of the widow is then shaved; but these days’ widows can pay some money to prevent the shaving of the hair because of education. In some areas, a rope is put around her neck as a necklace. She cannot travel far, cannot remove the rope until they perform the final funeral rites of her husband.
She said the widow is only allowed to wear clothes when the man is buried, adding that during the performance of the final funeral rites, she must wear the leaves. The widow is supposed to feed the ritualist with nutritious food for the period the funeral lasts.
After the funeral, she is supposed to accompany the ritualist to his house with different types of food stuff. Due to this practice the ritualists admit that though they know that what they are doing is wrong, it is like a source of employment to them.
Madam Ayagiba said in other tribes, two separate people bath the widow. “While one holds hot water, the other holds cold water. When the one with hot water throws the hot water on the widow, then the one with the cold water will also throw the water at her. If the one handling the cold water is slow, the widow will be burnt; and when she is burnt, she is accused of not being faithful to her late husband”
Madam Ayagiba explained that all these practices were aimed at disfiguring the widow so that the husband’s ghost will not recognise her or scare the ghost so that he does not come to call her wife to where he is (land of the dead). Again the widow is expected to choose a brother or a relative of the late husband to remarry because of the dowry paid by her husband (cows). Hence she is seen as a property and not as a partner
Madam Ayagiba blames the practice on the high illiteracy rates of widows in Northern Ghana, and said some of them proudly drink the concoction to prove that they are innocent of the accusations levelled against them.
Again, she said, since the family of the widow could not pay back the cows they took from her late husband as dowry, the widow has no choice but to remarry her late husband’s relative and continue to give birth for the dead man.
“If she refuses to do that, she becomes an enemy because this means she does not respect authority and might be asked to leave the house. If the widow agrees to remarry, then she incurs the displeasure of her rival and at any slightest mistake, her rival insults her for being a bad luck woman and a witch who has killed her husband and now wants to kill hers.
Madam Ayagiba said the practice can lead to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and AIDS. Also the widow uses and loses all she has during the funeral and ends up with nothing hence her children becoming wayward due to her inability to cater for them.
Clearly, these acts contravene the rights of women as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. Article 26 (2) of the Constitution spells out clearly that, customary practices, which dehumanise or are injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a person, are prohibited, and it is strange that despite these constitutional provisions, nothing has been done over the years to curb the negative practice.
These women and children who are made to undergo this ritual in the name of culture and tradition must be assisted and education intensified to end the practice.
It is crucial that the government, traditional rulers, the law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) concerned about the rights of women, among several others, act on time to address the problem.

3NGOS, VODAFONE EMBARK ON TREE PLANTING (PAGE 42, SEPT 27, 2010)

THREE non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the Bawku West District in the Upper East Region, with support from Vodafone Ghana Limited, have embarked on a tree-planting programme to enhance afforestation in the area.
The NGOs, namely Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC), the Centre for Traditional Governance (CTG) and the Zuuri Organic Vegetable Farmers Association (ZOVFA), have together planted 9,090 seedlings, comprising grafted mangoes, kapok, mahogany, cashew, teak, acacia.
The exercise was under a project dubbed: “Green Mobile Communities Project” (GMCP), which is also targeted at protecting water bodies at Binaba and its environs as well as providing subsistence incomes for members of the beneficiary communities.
Giving an overview of the project, the chief of Binaba, Naba Moses Abaare, who is also the Executive Director of CTG, said the project was developed in response to issues of environmental protection and climate change, as well as the increasing need for farming communities to find more sustainable ways to farm.
He explained that the GMCP idea was born out of the interest of the five key players.
Naba Abaare, who is also the former District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bawku West, said in order to sustain the project, the implementing organisations had evolved several strategies including the effective and continuous sensitisation of the communities, especially the key actors, on the need for the project.
He said key technical departments like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Water Resource Commission, Forestry Services Division of the Forestry Commission as well as the District Assembly, had been brought on board to ensure its successful implementation.
“Provision of technical skills such as tree nursery management/seedling production, mango grafting and fruit tree production, will constitute various ways of generating income for community members some of whom presently operate along the banks of some rivers and streams,” Naba Abaare stated.
The Corporate Responsibility Manager of Vodafone Ghana, Ms Mamle Asare, said her outfit’s involvement in the project was in recognition of its social responsibility to protect the environment in which it operated.
“Vodafone as a major player in the telecommunication industry, deemed it necessary to support this initiative since the company has always demonstrated its commitment to issues on environment because it understands the importance of the environment to the sustainability of its business,” she said.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, who launched the project, commended the four organisations for coming together to protect the environment.
She charged members of the beneficiary communities to take part in the exercise to enhance afforestation and improve livelihoods.

GARU-TEMPANE GETS EYE CLINIC (PAGE 42, SEPT 27, 2010)

IN line with its vision to bring quality health delivery services closer to the less privileged people, the Presbyterian Health Services has inaugurated a new ward to provide eye care to the people of Garu-Tempane in the Upper East Region.
The estimated GH¢65,000 30-bed ward facility, which has offices and washrooms, was funded by partners of the Northern Presbytery Health Services (NPHS) based in the Netherlands.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the General Manager of the NPHS, Mr John Abugri, said the provision of the facility was indicative of the Presbyterian Church’s policy to bring health delivery services to the doorsteps of the under privileged in society.
According to him, over the years, the church, guided by its policy of comprehensive health care as reflected in its mission statement, had demonstrated its vision in various aspects.
They include eye care services, orthopaedic, physiotherapy, dental care, psychiatry, audiology and public health services.
Mr Abugri said the services were not restricted to Bawku and its environs, but extended beyond the rest of the Upper East Region.
He said available statistics indicated that the Bawku Eye Clinic and its outreach activities saw over 40,000 out patients in 2009 and operated 2,400 of them.
Mr Abugri added that but for the Bawku conflict, the figures could have been more, “judging from the fact that as of June, 2010, we saw close to 30,000 cases.”
He said before the construction of the ward, the Garu Health Centre alone was seeing less than 200 patients a month and performing about 20 surgeries, but as of now, it carried out between 40 and 50 surgeries a month.
He stated that the success of the NPHS had not been without challenges, adding that the biggest problem facing the facility in general and eye services in particular, was the inadequate number of critical staff such as doctors and nurses.
“The nurses’ situation is becoming more serious due to old age. Almost all the experienced nurses, including the only trained cataract nurse-surgeon, are in their mid-fifties without the corresponding number of younger ones to replace them when they compulsorily retire at 60 years,” Mr Abugri said.
He said the situation called for the training of more nurses, including one or two cataract surgeons and an eye nurse.
Mr Abugri appealed to the NPHS partners from the Netherlands to use their influence to get at least one ophthalmologist and a general doctor to support the facility.
He also appealed to the Garu-Tempane District Assembly to complement the support being rendered by the Presbyterian Health Services and its partners by supporting the facility which is currently serving as a District Health Centre.
Mr Abugri commended the Christofel Blinded Mission in Germany for supporting the NPHS.
The First District Medical Officer for Bawku in the 1960s, Mr Jan Osterink, appealed to the government to extend development to the area.
Mr Osterink, who is also known as Laafi Naba (development chief), said considering the remote nature of the area, it should be possible for the government to allocate resources to develop the area.
The District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Abdulai Abubakar, who represented the District Chief Executive, Mr David Adakudugu, said eye diseases were most pronounced in the district.
He, therefore, commended the Presbyterian Church for providing health delivery services in the area, and urged the staff to remain committed to their duties.

DEPLORABLE ROADS IN UPPER EAST CRY FOR HELP (PAGE 42, SEPT 27, 2010)

FOR some months now, the Upper East Region has enjoyed good rains. The downpours coupled with the opening of the sluice gates of the Bagre Dam in neighbouring Burkina Faso, have resulted in the swelling of most streams and rivers.
The situation has led to some deaths and damage to tonnes of farm produce, which are most regrettable.
Aside the destruction, the rains have exposed the bad road network in the region, especially the regional capital, Bolgatanga. The plight of the people has worsened due to the pot-hole dotted roads, some of which have developed into gullies, that collect large volumes of water anytime it rains.
The situation has made driving and general movement very uncomfortable for vehicle owners.
One common sight that greets a visitor to the regional capital is the difficulty with which drivers struggle to manoeuvre to dodge the pot-holes.
The roads in the central business area of the regional capital have developed deep pot-holes.
The road from the SSNIT flats junction through the front of the Ghana Commercial Bank to the Central mosque area, as well as the road stretching from the black star hotel through the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) area, down to the total fuel station area, have all deteriorated.
Others such as the Bolgatanga-Zuarungu-Kongo road, which is part of the Bolgatanga-Bawku trunk road, are unmotorable.
A number of residents this reporter spoke to the state of roads in the Bolgatanga Municipality expressed concern about the poor road network in the municipality.
Some of the respondents said they had to contend with vehicles which splash water on them in an attempt to dodge the large pot-holes on the streets.
They, therefore, called on the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly to take realistic measures to ensure that the numerous pot-holes are filled to save them the drudgery in using the roads.
When contacted, the Municipal Chief Executive for Bolgatanga, Mr Epsona Ayamga, said the assembly had designed a special programme to patch up the pot-holes that had developed on the roads in the municipality.
According to him, the contract had been awarded to a contractor to carry out the rehabilitation, and appealed to the residents to bear with the situation as steps were being taken to repair the roads.
Mr Ayamga, however, gave the assurance that the road rehabilitation would be completed on schedule before the regional capital hosts a durbar to climax the region’s golden jubilee celebration later this month.
In the case of the Bolgatanga-Zuarungu-Kongo road which is part of the Bolgatanga-Bawku trunk road, the Regional Maintenance Engineer of the Ghana Highway Authority, Mr Paul Bortieh, said it had been awarded on contract for spot improvement.
Perhaps what the authorities can do is to ensure that whoever is carrying out the work is made to fast-track the job to save travellers the pain of using that road. The “mini-dams” created right in the centre of the road at Zanlerigu must be covered to prevent vehicles from getting stuck in them.
As the region is celebrating 50 years of its creation, it is time the deplorable road network is improved, considering the benefit and importance of good road network to the economy of the region.
In an interview with the Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, said early this year, he gave the assurance that the implementation of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) by the government would facilitate the up-grading of roads in the region.
He said the Regional Co-ordinating Council was also liaising with the Ministry of Roads and agencies under it to fashion out a plan to repair roads in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
The people of the region have been told that under SADA, major roads linking food producing areas in the region have been earmarked either for construction or rehabilitation and it is the hope of the people that the promises are fulfilled.
The road network in the Upper East Region, which is celebrating its golden jubilee, is nothing to write home about. The earlier something concrete is done about the deplorable roads, the better it will be for the entire residents.

NADMO WANTS LAW TO ENFORCE EVACUATION (BACK PAGE, SEPT 24, 2010)

The Upper East Regional Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Patrick Akake, has stated that until the law establishing the organisation is amended, the outfit cannot use force to eject people living close to river beds and flood prone areas.
“Until a Legislative Instrument is put before Parliament seeking to empower NADMO to force out people farming close to river beds and some of the flood prone area, the situation will continue”, he said.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga, he said in spite of the flood warning alerts issued ahead of the spillage of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso and the onset of heavy rains in the region, some citizens had failed to heed the calls and as a result lost their lives.
In the Upper East Region, 12 lives have been lost so far in flood waters.
According to Mr Akake, until the LI is passed to compel NADMO to apply force, they can only continue to sensitise people not to farm close to the White Volta river, which incidentally is very fertile and suitable for farming.
In August, 2007, heavy rains in the Upper East Region led to floods. The flood was aggravated by the opening of the floodgates of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso when the Burkina Faso authorities failed to notify their Ghanaian counterparts on time for them to prepare for the sudden increase of water.
This year, however, the information on the opening of the sluice gates came very early enabling the NADMO to activate its sensitisation programme on time. Yet , some few residents ones failed to heed the flood alert.

CHRISTIANS IN BAWKU PRAY FOR PEACE (PAGE 3, SEPT 20, 2010)

Hundreds of Christian faithful in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region have gathered to pray to God to heal the land and restore the area to permanent peace.
The prayer session was organised by the Bawku Local Council of Churches in collaboration with World Vision Ghana.
Peace is gradually returning to the Bawku Municipality, which for the past few years has witnessed turbulent fighting, and the prayer session was to consolidate the efforts made by the government, the National Peace Council, the West African Network for Peace(WANEP), and the Bawku Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee (BIEPC).
It is also to consolidate the gains that have been made that the churches in the area together with World Vision Ghana joined forces to seek the face of God to restore permanent peace in the area.
The congregants, drawn from several churches and staff of World Vision Ghana, defied intermittent rains and for over four hours prayed fervently to God for a breakthrough in the quest for permanent peace in Bawku.
The Chairman of the Bawku Local Council of Churches, Rev. Fr. Dominic Akologo Alale Azumah, quoting from 2 Chronicles Chapter 7:14, said unless the people of the land could identify other sins, acknowledged them and take full responsibility for them, there would be no hope.
He urged the people to turn to God to obtain the needed help to deliver them from their situation.
He bemoaned the fact that over the last 10 years, media reports about Bawku had not been favourable partly due to the reoccurrence of conflict in the area.
He observed that due to the intervention of several bodies, the situation was returning to normalcy and appealed to journalists to focus on the positive side of things with regard to happenings in Bawku.
The Director of Advocacy, Communication and Marketing of World Vision Ghana, Madam Agnes Phillips, said the only weapon for Christians was to pray, and urged the Christian community not to relent but to continually pray to God for the restoration of peace in Bawku.
“Wherever there is confusion and trouble, let us remember to turn to God and pray until something happens. Murder pollutes the land. Let us all turn to God to heal the land,” she said.
The Co-chairman of the Bawku Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee, Alhaji Ibrahim Kolbila, commended the Christian communities for complementing the road map to peace by bringing all believers to pray for peace.
He said the committee, as part of its efforts at facilitating peace in Bawku and in line with agreed steps, had also embarked on a series of traditional pacification rituals in 11 out of the 25 communities targeted, all in the quest to bring peace to Bawku.
He praised the citizens of Bawku domiciled outside the country, the Upper East MP caucus and the municipal assembly for supporting the efforts of the committee and urged all interested stakeholders to lend a helping hand in restoring peace to Bawku.

ENUMERATORS CONCERNS WON'T AFFECT CENSUS (PAGE 46, SEPT 20, 2010)

The Upper East Regional Statistician, Mr Festus Manuh, has played down assertions that the ongoing training for census enumerators is under threat following some concerns raised by some trainees in the Bawku Municipality over the quality and quantity of food served them.
He told the Daily Graphic in Bolgatanga that a minor incident could not in any way disrupt the programme, emphasising that everything was moving according to plan.
“You have to bear in mind that since the exercise covers a large group of people, you can in no way meet the expectation of each individual.
It is, therefore, expected that some people will be uncomfortable with a particular occurrence but this has not in anyway affected the training of the enumerators,” he said.
Last Wednesday, some trainees in the Bawku Municipality raised concerns about the quantity of food served them and questioned why they had not been served an egg as part of the menu during the programme.
Responding, a Zonal Co-ordinator for Upper East, Mr Owusu Kagya, said going by the arrangements on the ground, the trainees were to be given eggs every other day contrary to the assertions by the trainees that they should be served eggs every day.
He re-affirmed the position of the Regional Statistician that due to the large number of the participants, the situation might have overwhelmed the caterers assigned to provide meals at the various centres but that had in no way affected the conduct of the exercise.
Touching on the training programme, Mr Manuh said all the necessary materials needed for the programme were in place and so far all the resource persons were carrying out the training as expected.
He said he and his officers also carried out regular assessment of the programme to ensure that the right thing was done and where there were difficulties, steps were taken to address them.
A visit to the Bolgatanga Girls’ Senior High School and the Bolgatanga Senior High School where training for enumerators in the Bolgatanga Municipality and Talensi-Nabdam District indicated that the exercise was going on as expected.
A few of the enumerators who spoke to this reporter said so far, the exercise had been devoid of problems and where they found challenges, the course prefects and trainers were available to address them.
In the Upper East Region, a total of 2,257 persons are participating in the training programme with the Bawku Municipality having the highest number of trainees.
In Bawku 460 participants have been enrolled for the programme.
The Regional Capital, Bolgatanga, has 302 trainees; Talensi-Nabdam, 243; Kassena Nankana East, 257; Garu-Tempane, 277; Bawku West, 218; Builsa, 197; Bongo, 169 and Kassena-Nankana West, 134.

CODRIGAM SUPPORTS 63...To contest assembly polls (PAGE 12, SEPT 15, 2010)

COMMUNITY Driven Gender Advocacy Movement (CODRIGAM), a coalition of communities in the Upper East Region, have nominated 63 women to contest in the upcoming district level elections scheduled for October this year.
In all, 19 communities have nominated 21 women to file as candidates for assembly positions and 42 others for unit committee positions in the region.
The women were organised in 30 communities in the Bolgatanga Municipal, Talensi-Nabdam District, Bawku Municipal, and Kassena-Nankana East District assemblies and they would be given the necessary support to contest in the forthcoming elections.
CODRIGAM is one of the major outcomes of the Centre for Sustainable Development Initiatives (CENSUDIs) gender advocacy work with communities in the Upper East Region.
According to the coalition, the communities would continue to provide moral and fiscal support to these female candidates while the CENSUDI, a local NGO, assists them with campaign skills and strategy.
Speaking at a ceremony to introduce the candidates in Bolgatanga, the Chief of Yorogo in the Bolgatanga Municipality, Naba Awuni A. Johnson, bemoaned the unfair representation at decision-making levels of governance, adding that women for the greater part of their lives have been reduced to household managers without any significant representation at the assemblies and unit committees.
Naba Awuni, who was flanked by two other traditional rulers, the Chief of Kalbeo, Naba Apasipange Aguuseyine and the Chief of Tenzuk, John Bawa Zuure, said the coalition would extol women’s virtues and do house-to-house campaigns for them, educate and discourage people from demanding alcohol and money from the candidates.
Rather, they would urge people to choose women over men based on the capacities of the women to develop their areas, as well as support them after they had won, with good ideas and also give them encouraging words if they fail to win.
The chief observed that poverty remained the biggest problem in the homes and communities in the Upper East Region as well as the Northern and Upper West regions, constituting 70 per cent of Ghana’s poor living in these three sister regions.
Naba Awuni believes that two major factors perpetuate poverty in the homes and communities in these regions; the unfair discrimination against women and children that lead to ill treatment, marginalisation and exclusion from major resources and decisions about development, and confusing wants for needs of the communities resulting in wrong expenditure patterns that sink the people deeper into poverty.
Explaining his assertions, the chief contended that those factors were confirmed in a participatory poverty assessment carried out for the World Bank and UNICEF in 2009 by Participatory Development Associates which established that nine out of 10 women are subjected to domestic abuse by men and boys just because they are women, and for no good reason; seven out of 10 married women are “living widows” literally married to their marital homes and not with men who came to court them; one out of five older women will be accused of witchcraft unfairly; many households will borrow money for funerals, alcohol, religious and traditional practices that do not add value to their lives or development but will not do same to send a girl-child to school, even though the district assemblies, the house of chiefs, the traditional councils, ministries, department and agencies and even some NGOs that claim are working for women are headed by men.
Naba Awuni expressed regret that out of the 14,856 candidates who filed for the 2006 district level election, only 1,772 were female candidates of which only 478 won their seats, representing 10 per cent of all district assembly seats in the Upper East Region.
According to him, less than 10 per cent of the 1/3 appointed district assembly members in the region between 2006 and 2010 were women.
A community member and an aspirant for the assembly member position, Madam Agnes Sakelob, said as members of the coalition, it was their belief that in order to achieve sustainable development, there was the need to correct the gender imbalances that existed in the society.
“The major role of district assemblies and sub-district structures is the reduction of poverty for the attainment of sustainable development and this is why we need to get more women into these decision-making organs since it is believed that women will be in a better position to bring to the fore issues affecting them in all facets of life when given the opportunity”, she said.
The CEO for CENSUDI, Ms Franciska Issaka, whose organisation have been working with the coalition since 2005, said the ultimate goal of the communities was to tackle the underlying causes of their pervasive poverty.
She explained that under the guidance of CENSUDI, communities had put in place processes and systems that reduced unfair discrimination against women, adding that with more support from her organisation, those communities had become a coalition to strengthen their ability to encourage other communities to emulate their kind of gender advocacy.
She emphasised that CODRIGAM aimed to lobby traditional councils, district authorities and even national level government to adopt and implement appropriate gender and child-friendly policies and practices.
“CODRIGAM knows that this increase in women’s participation in local governance will contribute immensely to reduce the canker of poverty and stunted development of the region, which is one of the poorest regions in Ghana where 9 out of 10 people randomly selected live below the poverty line”, she said.

NAVRONGO: 350 YOUTH ENGAGED AS CETA (PAGE 13, SEPT 13, 2010)

THREE hundred and fifty youth from the Kassena-Nankana East District of the Upper East Region have been signed onto the Community Education Teaching Assistants, (CETA) Module of the National Youth Employment Programme.
The CETA module is designed to augment the teacher shortages at the deprived rural areas in the country where most trained teachers refuse postings.
Opening a one-week intensive training programme for the new recruits at Navrongo, the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, reminded the new entrants that the programme was a stop-gap measure which was aimed at addressing the nagging problem of youth unemployment in the country.
She explained that the programme was to offer beneficiaries an opportunity to serve in their chosen fields for two years, after which they were to exit for either further academic upgrading or acquire a professional accreditation for real employment.
She urged the new entrants to pay the needed attention to the facilities of the training programme and learn whatever they would be taught so that they could in turn use the knowledge and skills they would acquire to impact the requisite knowledge to the pupils they would be assigned to teach.
“Teaching is not a field for lazy people. You can make a great difference only if you take the opportunity offered you seriously. Try and put up your best and do bear in mind that this can be a future career for you so accord it the seriousness it deserves”, she said.
Mrs Awuni said government would continue to formulate and implement policies that would ensure the well-being of the citizenry but would require the support and co-operation of all, especially civil society groups, the private sector and well-meaning Ghanaians to achieve the set targets.
The District Chief Executive, Mr Emmanuel Andema, welcomed the move to recruit young people to teach in the district.
The District Co-ordinator of NYEP, Mr Abdul-Mumin Abdul Karim, said the purpose of the training was to introduce trainees to the teaching profession

using training manuals developed with support from the Ministry of Education to equip them with basic knowledge and skills in teaching.
He also reiterated the need for the trainees to be committed and cultivate positive attitudes in the teaching profession.
The Regional Co-ordinator of NYEP, Mr James Kojo Kopanamo, reminded the trainees that the exercise was to prepare beneficiaries for the future and not an avenue for permanent employment.
He made it clear that after two years, the current batch will be exited to pave way for others to be enrolled, adding that a comprehensive programme had been drawn to assist those who served as Community Education Teaching Assistants to enter into teacher training colleges based on their qualification.
He also called on the participants to subject themselves to the code of conduct of professional teachers and warned that those who showed gross disrespect and misconduct would be subjected to sanctions pertaining to the teaching field.
The District Director of Education for Kassena-Nankana East, Mr Severo Dery, welcomed the training programme and urged the trainees to take their studies seriously.

MORE U. EAST SCHOOLS BENEFIT FROM FEEDING PROGRAMME (PAGE 12, SEPT 8 2010)

The number of beneficiary schools under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) in the Upper East Region has increased from 18 to 64 since the National Democratic Congress assumed the reins of government.
The Upper East Regional Co-ordinator of the programme, Mr Donatus Akamugri Atanga, disclosed this in reaction to suggestions by activists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the region that the programme was collapsing.
He said the NDC was determined to increase and improve upon the programme to achieve the purpose for which it was established.
Mr Atanga challenged the NPP to come out with the figures to back their claim that not a single school had been added to the programme since the NDC came to power.
He stressed that the programme was not a novelty by the NPP for the north but had come to replace already existing feeding programmes by the Catholic Relief Services and World Food Programme and the NDC as a party was committed to see to it that it was enhanced for the benefit of all.
“The GSFP however is not a novelty in Northern Ghana for NPP to behave as if before their eight years administration, pupils had never tasted food in schools”, he said.
Explaining the expansion made to the programme in the region, Mr Akamugri said since NDC came into power in 2009, it had added 10 schools to Bolga Municipal, five to Bongo, three to Talensi-Nabdam, three to Garu-Tempane, three to Builsa, five to Kassena-Nankana East, three Kassena-Nankana West, four to Bawku West District and 10 to Bawku Municipal, adding that currently the total number of schools benefiting from the programme is 64.
Touching on the restructuring of the programme, he said school implementation committees made up of a traditional ruler, an assembly member, the girls’ and boys’ prefect, PTA chairman and the head teacher, had been formed and conscientised to take active part in the implementation of the programme and also discuss the challenges confronting the programme.
He reiterated the fact that the policy objective was to institute a feeding programme which will ensure that all pupils in schools were fed and urged those interested in scoring cheap political points to tread cautiously.

PRESBY CHURCH CHOIRS UNION HOLDS 52ND CONFAB (PAGE 42, SEPT 8, 2010)

THE Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, has entreated Christians not only to be concerned with spiritual things, but also take advantage of all the opportunities created by the government to develop themselves.
She gave the advice when she addressed the 52nd annual national delegates conference of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana Choirs Union at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.
The five-day conference, which was on the theme: “Empowered by the Holy Spirit—The gift of singing,” was attended by 1,276 delegates and observers drawn from all the 10 regions of Ghana.
Mrs Awuni encouraged members of the choirs union of the church to take advantage of government policies such as the Youth in Agriculture programme, which could help transform their lives and those of their various branches so that they do not depend on monetary contributions of members in order to carry out their activities.
She also expressed concern about indiscipline in the country, especially among the youth, and charged the leadership of the union to lead the fight to arrest the situation.
“Let us all go back to the time-tested and much acclaimed and revered “Presbyterian discipline”, which has been abandoned for some time now,” Mrs Awuni stressed.
She commended the Presbyterian Church for its contribution towards national development.
The Deputy Regional Minister mentioned some of the projects undertaken by the church in the region as the Presbyterian Hospital and the Nurses Training College in Bawku, the Eye Clinic in Bolgatanga, the Agricultural Stations in Garu and Sandema, the community-based rehabilitation centre at Garu and the three health centres at Tongo, Garu and Woriyanga.
She said those facilities had contributed tremendously to the socio-economic development of the people in the region.
Mrs Awuni reminded the delegates of the up-coming National Population and Housing Census and the District Assembly elections and urged them to show active interest in those two events.
Mrs Awuni encouraged women in the church to take up the challenge and compete in the District Assembly elections to help change the face of politics in the country.
The Chairperson of the Northern Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Dr Martin Bugri Nabor, who opened the conference, charged the delegates to let their songs bring transformation and help bring more people to God.
The President of the union, Dr Daniel Okae-Anti, said such gatherings provided avenue for evaluating the activities of the union and adopt strategies that would enhance the work of the church.
Outlining his vision for the union, Dr Okae-Anti challenged the leadership of the choirs at the various branches to develop novel business ideas that would generate the requisite revenue for the efficient running of the union.
He also looked forward to a situation where the union would build the capacity and the potential of individual choristers by way of unearthing their musical talents to enhance worship in the church.
Dr Okae-Anti urged members of the union to eschew apathy towards the church and choir activities and rather strive to develop their spirituality.

WONYONGO COMMENDS CONTRACTORS (PAGE 13, SEPT 4, 2010)

THE Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, has commended contractors working on a number of educational projects in the Bawku Municipality, Garu-Tempane and Bawku West Districts for their satisfactory work.
He gave the commendation when he inspected the projects in these districts as part of his programme to assess the progress of educational projects in the Upper East Region.
Accompanied by the consultants from Northern Consultants and the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited, as well as other officials from the Regional Coordinating Council, the regional minister inspected the projects being undertaken under the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) emergency projects programme.
It is aimed at providing adequate infrastructure to ensure that there are no setbacks in the enrolment of new students, given the already precarious situation in some schools before the enrolment of new senior high school (SHS) form one students by the end of September 2010.
Some of the projects visited were a six-unit classroom block, an administration and library complex and a girls’ dormitory block for the Tempane Senior High School. The Bawku Senior High and Technical SHS is benefiting from a two-storey classroom block, an administration and library complex, and girls’ dormitory.
At the Bawku Technical Institute the regional minister and his entourage inspected work on a library complex and a girls dormitory.
He also led the team to Zebilla to inspect a six-unit classroom block, a dining hall, a kitchen complex, as well as a girls’ dormitory.
With the exception of the six-unit classroom block at the Tempane Senior High School which was still at the foundation level with the contractor not on site at the time of the visit, Mr Woyongo said he was satisfied with the quality of work done.
He said although the projects had delayed, he was hopeful that the various contractors would ensure the early completion of the projects.
Mr Woyongo said his office would give incentives to contractors who complete their jobs on or ahead of schedule by placing them on the priority list of the RCC to ensure that future contracts were awarded to only those who delivered quality work in good time.
Heads of the various educational institutions visited commended the government for working assiduously to make good its commitment to provide infrastructure for their schools.
Mr Issah Sannie Mahama, Headmaster of Tempane Senior High School; Ms Elizabeth Apibil, Headmistress of Bawku Senior High and Technical School; Ms Catherine Mbum, Headmistress of Zebilla Senior High School and Mr Linus T. Tuuli, Principal of Bawku Technical Institute, commended the government for providing the needed infrastructure for their schools.
Ms Elizabeth Apibil, Headmistress of Bawku Senior High/ Technical School, said since the NDC government assumed office in 2008, her school had benefited from six projects which were all at various stages of construction, and that when completed, they would boost education delivery in the school.