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Stakeholders urged to work to resolve
chieftaincy disputes
Birifo, (UWR) April 7, GNA - Mr. Ambrose Dery, Upper West
Regional Minister has called on stakeholders in the
chieftaincy institution to work quickly to resolve all
chieftaincy disputes in the Upper West Region to pave way
for peace, progress and development.
He said the few troubled spots in the region were as a
result of chieftaincy disputes pointed out that the region,
which had an enviable reputation of being very peaceful, was
losing grounds on that title due to some chieftaincy
disputes, the cost of which was huge and a detriment to
development.
He bemoaned the situation and said it was unfortunate that
in recent times the deserved recognition of the institution
has been affected by litigations and conflicts and called
for concerted efforts to address the issues to enhance
progress and development.
Mr. Dery made the call during the out-dooring of Naa Naabomo
Gandaa IV Divisional Chief of Birifo in the Lawra
Traditional Area on Saturday, which was attended by people
from the three Northern Regions and neighbouring Burkina
Faso.
Naa Gandaa, 68, who is known in private life as Harry Edward
Naabomo Gandaa is contractor and hotelier and one time a
Member of Parliament for Lawra Nandom during the Limann
administration.
Mr. Dery said he was not happy that there was no full
complement of Chiefs in the Regional House of Chiefs because
of disputes in some paramountcies, a situation, he said, was
dividing the people and impeding development in the
communities.
He said, even though the government would remain committed
to its policy of non-interference in chieftaincy matters, it
would not shun its responsibility of ensuring peace for the
people to go about their normal duties.
Mr. Dery therefore, warned chieftaincy litigants to stop
fomenting troubles for the people and to resort to the use
of peaceful means to address chieftaincy matters, as a way
of unifying the people and ensuring peaceful co-existence.
He called on traditional rulers in the region to complement
the government's efforts in enhancing the quality of life of
the people through its pro-poor interventions such as
capitation grant, the National Health Insurance Scheme, the
National Youth Employment Programme, by disseminating
information on these issues to encourage the people to
patronage them.
Mr. Dery commended the kingmakers of the Birifo Divisional
Council for the peaceful manner they conducted the process
of nominating, enskinning and Outdooring of Naa Gandaa and
urged others in the region to emulate them.
"I urged you to sustain that unity and understanding and
even more importantly, to translate them into unflinching
support for our new chief to bring more development to the
traditional area", he said.
In his welcoming address, Naa Gandaa pledged his continuous
support and cooperation to the Lawra Paramountcy to
contribute positively towards national development.
He said, his priority area of development would be on
education, which he described as the bedrock of any society
and mentioned four primary schools and two junior secondary
schools, he intended to develop.
Naa Gandaa appealed to the government to consider his area
with a senior secondary school to cater for the numerous
junior secondary school graduates who have no access to a
senior secondary school but have to travel outside to attain
secondary education.
He also bemoaned the periodic migration of the youth of the
area to the southern parts of the country, especially during
the dry season for white-colour-jobs and appealed to the
government to provide the area with dams and dugouts to
enable the youth to stay at home to undertake dry season
gardening.
Water pumping machines could also be given to the youth on
credit basis to embark on irrigation along Black Volta
River, while efforts were made to provide the necessary
logistic and resource for the Integrated Community Centre at
Birifo to offer employable skills to the youth there.
On tourism, Naa Gandaa said Birifo is home to a natural
spring, which flows throughout the year and called for its
development to attract tourists to the place to generate
income for the country.
GNA
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