PEACE BRINGD DEV TO BAWKU (BACK PAGE, JAN 1, 2011)

The Bawku Municipality in the Upper East Region is witnessing rapid development due to the relative peace prevailing in the area after months of violent conflict.
Speaking at this year’s Samanpiid festival of the chiefs and people of Bawku last Thursday, the municipal chief executive of the area, Mr Musa Abdulai, said over the last two years, the assembly had awarded more than 30 projects in the municipality in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation, electricity and agriculture.
Mr Abdulai attributed the fast pace of development to the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the municipality and the preparedness of the people to co-exist peacefully.
Samanpiid festival, which is celebrated annually, is a traditional post-harvest thanksgiving event meant to thank God and the ancestral spirits for a successful farming season. It is also an occasion to discuss other social and developmental issues affecting the people.
This year’s celebration, like in the past two celebrations, was held under heavy security to avert any nasty incident.
The MCE said for the year 2010 alone, seven six-unit classroom blocks with ancillary facilities had been awarded under the GETFund facility. Again, 15 boreholes and two clinics and some roads were being constructed under the Community Based Rural Development Programme.
In the agriculture sector, Mr Abdulai said the government, through the fertiliser subsidy, lessened the burden of farmers and this had led to an increase in agricultural output in the municipality.
He appealed to the chiefs and people not to draw back efforts aimed at restoring permanent peace in the municipality, emphasising that “greater things would by all means be done if we all eschew violence and embrace each other as a people with a common destiny”.
He also commended the security agencies and all other stakeholders for sacrificing their lives and time towards attaining peace in the area and pledged the commitment towards measures put in place to return the municipality to permanent peace.
The Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr Alexander Asum-Ahesah, who represented the President at the festival, reminded the people of the area that what they needed was absolute peace for the massive socio-economic development and not incessant violence.
He disclosed that the government had contracted a loan of $75 million from the International Development Association (IDA) to improve and upgrade the water sector in six regions including the Upper East Region. Also, about 20,000 boreholes would be provided throughout the country starting from the 2011 fiscal year.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, appealed to the people of Bawku to use the festival as a vehicle for reconciliation and forgiveness.
“Let us see ourselves as brothers and sisters, with the same sense of purpose of rebuilding this once growing and prosperous municipality,” he said.
The Paramount Chief of Bawku, Zug-Raan Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, said he looked forward to a day that all the people in Bawku could fully reintegrate as brothers and sisters, mingling freely everywhere without fear or suspicion of one another.