Veep Calls For Calm

Vice-president John Dramani Mahama has called on the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and the Paramount Chief of the Techiman Traditional Area to tackle the problem of chieftaincy with level headedness.

He said since the two traditional areas shared common culture and traditional values, there was the need for them to bury the hatchet for peace to prevail.

The vice-president who said this at the installation of a new Yagbonwura, Tuntumba Boree Essa I, at Damongo in the Northern Region, expressed concern about pockets of chieftaincy and political upheaval in some parts of the country and appealed for calm.

The new Yagbonwura, know in private life as Tuntumba Sulemana Amanfo Jakpa, the Kusawgu Wura.

“This should be a turning point in our lives. No political is worth more than the drop of blood. Shedding of blood to get political power is not the best, he stressed.

He appealed to the new chief to make land registration in Gonja a priority.

According to him as society progresses it is incumbent on chiefs and leaders to adopt new ways of administering land.

Mr. Mahama said the era where lands were not registered as essential commodity were past, adding that “we must now put values on our lands.”

He said the only way the country could confront the eminent food problem well is to use arable land.

Mr. Mahama noted that the healthy environment created by the Mills’ administration would attract investors who would large tracks of land and therefore cautioned against the release of such lands “for a few bottles of drinks and paltry sum of money”

“I appealed to you to seek the proper counseling before you dispose off the land. Investment should not be done at the expense of the toil of our forefathers who laid their blood to acquire the land for us,” he said.

He gave the assurance that the water and road projects earmarked for the area would be completed on time and commended the chiefs and people of the area for the unity of purpose.

The vice-president commended the kingmakers for their sense of integrity in choosing and installing the successor to the Yagbon skin after the demise of Alhaji Bawa Doshie I.

He called on other ethnic and traditional authorities, particularly Dagbon, who were facing chieftaincy problem to emulate the shining examples of the kingmakers of the Gonja Traditional Area.

For his part, the Northern Regional Minister Moses Mabengba said the government , through the Northern Rural Growth Programme, has selected some districts in the region to pilot dry season farming.

“The block farming programme for Youth in Agriculture has been very encouraging in the district. We intend to expand and extend it to cover other parts of the district so as to engage as many of the youth as possible.

The new King, Boree Essa I assured genuine investors of his willingness to release land for projects that could be beneficial to the area.

He called on the government to implement the Youth in Agriculture module of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), stressing, “my chiefs and I are prepared to make land available for programmes that would create jobs and bring prosperity to our people.

Story: Wisdom Peter Awuku