“PEOPLE OF KAYONG IN DESPERATE NEED OF QUALITY EDUCATION”

It is the dream of many children in Kayong, a farming community under the Mion Constituency of the Yendi Municipality in the Northern Region of Ghana, to go to school and learn like their peers in the city. But the dream of these kids seems to be akin to building castles in the air, and this perhaps could be due to the helpless circumstances in which they have found themselves.

The lack of great opportunities for them is certainly against the wish of government’s policy to make basic education free and compulsory for every Ghanaian child of school going age. The question every right thinking Ghanaian especially the people of Kayong are now asking is; will government be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal II which aims at achieving universal primary education by the year 2015, considering their plight?

Kayong is very far from the nearest community Salkpang, located along the highway leading to the Yendi township where a little more opportunities in terms of health facilities, nice school buildings, pipe-borne water, electricity, good market and sanitation facilities, among others abound.

But Kayong has none of these social amenities as the people of this community travel through a distance of about 18 kilometres to Yendi to source most social services, hoping it might just get better one day in their own backyard.

Travelling to this community itself is a sad and grievous story to tell someone as one will cross about five watercourses during the rainy season due to the bad nature of the road, before finally arriving at the village whose inhabitants are very friendly but seriously yearning for development from their Member of Parliament, Alhaji Dr. Yakubu Ahmed Alhassan of the ruling National Democratic Congress and the Central government respectively.

Until the provision of the only Primary School which runs from class one to three, children in this underdeveloped community walked on foot every day to attend school at Salkpang. However, as soon as the rains start to come (wet season), the children will spend the rest of the term at home learning “nothing” and hope to continue schooling when the season is off.

But thanks to the Ghanaian Development Communities Association (GDCA) and a Community Based Organisation (CBO-network) through whose efforts Kayong has benefitted from its first ever school which was commissioned just recently.

Secretary of the CBO Mr. Abubakari Mahama in a statement to government and the MP for Mion, said “People of Kayong are in desperate need of quality education”. We want our children to alleviate us from poverty in future, he stressed.

According to him, even though education is very expensive it however becomes a hazardous task to be performed by parents who have to allow their children travel that far through the wilderness to school every day.

This is happening because, parents do not want posterity to judge them, but as a matter of fact, it is also imperative the government intervene at this moment in order to save both parents and children some grieve that might befall them one day, he warned.

Kayong Primary School which was commissioned without the presence of the MP for the area, officials of the Ghana Education Service and the Assemblyman who are considered key personalities, would in the meantime be handled by two volunteer teachers, Majeed Mahafus and Iddrisu Alhassan.

Aside Kayong, three other nearby communities such as Cherizau, Binvili and Jebong will also have their children benefit directly from formal education.

AAG AND ILGS DEVELOP TRAINING MANUAL FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Ahead of the 2010 District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections in Ghana, ActionAid Ghana (AAG), in collaboration with the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), has developed a training manual designed to prepare potential Assembly women and women’s groups for effective participation in good governance at the Assembly or local level.

The manual, entitled: “WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP-Training Manual for Assembly Women and Women Leaders” is aimed at providing a tool for equipping women with the requisite skills and knowledge to enable them to participate confidently and effectively in local decision-making processes. The ultimate aim is to increase the number of female Assembly members in the country, and to ensure their effectiveness in the Assemblies and in other leadership roles.

The manual is divided into two (2) parts with seventeen (17) modules. The first part focuses on the content of the District Assembly and the way it functions and the second part focuses on the relevant skills and knowledge women need to engage with the Assembly and other institutional structures and processes.

The Chief Executive Officer of Upper East based Centre for Sustainable Development Initiatives (CENSUDI), Francisca Issaka, in her remarks as chairperson for the occasion held in Savelugu in the Savelugu-Nanton District of the Northern Region, said good governance was good for Ghana especially when it is seen as a shining example of the best practises of democracy in Africa.

She was however quick to add that, even though good governance is good, over 70% of Ghanaian women and children were still not involved in decision-making both at the highest point and at the Assembly level, citing the three Northern Regions (Northern, Upper West and Upper East) as areas that are seriously lagging behind the whole country.

Madam Francisca who sounded very passionate on issues affecting women thus, encouraged Northerners to support women by involving them in decision-making processes at the grassroots level. She called for more women to be elected during the up coming District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections.

Ghana is a signatory to many international conventions and protocols including the Beijing Platform for Action and Maputo Protocol which are all targeted at eliminating the discrimination and oppression women faced. These conventions and protocols further recognise the need to enhance women participation in decision-making and leadership.

In Beijing Platform for Action, leaders committed to a minimum of 30% women’s representation in national decision making structures. However, in Ghana, the numerical strength of women in key decision-making positions is just few. For instance, the Administrative Class in the Civil Service (the biggest employer in the country) has a total figure of 1,050 staff out of which only 136 are women. Within Political Parties, the situation is not different. Until January, 2010 no woman had ever made it to the position of Chairman or General Secretary. Women activists are therefore, advocating the need for change of strategy to focus more on policy development that will set parameters within which Ghana can achieve the international 30% threshold for women’s representation and participation in decision-making at all levels.

In a speech read for her, Women’s Rights Policy Advisor for ActionAid Ghana, Patience Adumua-Lartey, said currently there are only 19 female legislators in Ghana’s Parliament which is made of 230 parliamentarians. Adding that, at the District Assemblies elected women members made up only 10.1% as compared to 89.9% male participation.

According to her, the reasons why women’s participation have lagged woefully behind men are due to discriminatory socio-cultural practises which result in high illiteracy rates, lack of skills and low confidence levels among women together with lack of governmental and political will to promote women in governance.

Mrs. Adumua-Lartey explained that low understanding of local government concept and the role of Assembly women, inadequate knowledge of Assembly procedures, negotiation, advocacy and lobbying, communication skills and proposal writing thus formed the basis for the development of the training manual which will help potential Assembly women and women leaders in the country.

ABSENCE OF TOBACCO LAW PROMOTING RECKLESS USE OF THE SUBSTANCE

Research has shown that awareness level on the dangers of tobacco use and second-hand smoking is still very low among Ghanaians most especially children and the illiterate, health experts say.

There has also been a very serious and disturbing delay in passing the Tobacco Bill into Law, more than six years since it was taken to the Cabinet of the previous regime under John Agyekum Kuffour for endorsement. Up till date, no one knows the fate of that Bill as the absence of a law has made the Tobacco industry to now adopt very subtle and more sophisticated ways in packaging and advertising cigarettes and other tobacco products recklessly. For instance, western films, and recently, Nigerian and other African movies are dangerously being used to advertise tobacco and promote smoking among the youth.

While all these things are happening, there seems to be no serious action from any quarters, both within and outside government to curtail them. The media, which is acclaimed for setting the national agenda, is rather tight-lipped and has focused on politics much to the relegation of this horrible practice. Civil society organizations have also lost their voices and health professionals are not doing enough.

But the Northern Regional Health Promoter, Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Yakubu, says all is not lost yet and encouraged all health professionals to take it upon themselves to offer counselling to patients whom they come into contact with at any particular period.

Speaking at the launch of the 2010 Health Week Celebration of the Federation of Ghana Medical Students’ Association (FGMSA)/University for Development Studies Medical Students’ Association (UDS-MSA) in Tamale, he maintained that health professionals have the opportunity to help people change their behavior and they can give advice, guidance and answers to questions related to the consequences of tobacco use, thereby help patients to stop smoking.

Studies have shown that even brief counseling by health professionals on the dangers of smoking and the importance of quitting is one of the most cost-effective methods of reducing smoking, he added, saying “your professional responsibility extends beyond the treatment and care of tobacco-caused disease to include prevention and cessation.”

Statistics have indicated that there are more than one billion smokers in the world and 5 million deaths per year due to tobacco. Tobacco kills one in two long-term users. If the current consumption patterns continue, the number of deaths will reach 10 million per year by 2020, of which 70% will occur in developing countries.

In Africa, 13.5% of boys and 5.2% of girls smoke cigarettes. The prevalence of the use of other tobacco products is around 11.3%. About 44% of young people in Africa are exposed to second-hand smoke in public places.

From the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 2003 and 2008, the Northern Region has the highest percentage (17.7%) of men who smoke cigarettes in Ghana. Tobacco use among the youth is also quite alarming. The 2005 Global Youth Tobacco Survey in Ghana revealed that 14.3 of students of Junior High Schools have ever tried smoking cigarettes, whiles 4.8% currently smoke cigarettes. 17.2% currently use other tobacco products while 16.5% of never smokers are likely to start smoking.

Seriously, tobacco threatens sustainable development in the world’s poorest nations including Ghana through disability and premature death, high personal and national economic costs and environmental damage. Besides, acute smoking causes cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung disease, adverse developmental effects, peptic ulcer disease, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, low sperm count and among others.

In a statement, President of UDS-MSA, Wewoli Bentil Awe, explained that the FGMSA is body which seeks to unite all medical students in the country in the various Universities. Adding that, the health week was replicated in all member associations in the country.

According to him, the annual health week is an important part of the federations’ social responsibilities of creating public awareness on certain key areas of public health importance, thus every year the health week is geared towards addressing a particular health need of the public, for this reason medical students are sent to stay in districts throughout the country to embark on health education on the theme of the health week.

This year’s theme which is: “Caring for the lung, breath is life”, placed special emphasis on the hazards of tobacco and snuff use. Against this background, the theme seeks to channel its education towards stopping smoking, tobacco and snuff usage which has financial and economic burden on families and long term implications on development of lung cancer in the adult population.

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY MARKED IN N/R

Although desertification and climate change in recent times, have assumed serious global concern and triggered debates among world leaders and environmental experts on their alarming effects, many people in Ghana probably due to ignorance have still not realised the importance of afforestation or tree planting to counteract the problems.

Lack of knowledge on many relevant issues is indeed a cancerous disease that has infected the larger Ghanaian society, not only the illiterate but also the literate or elite group.

As a result of the ignorance, most of the developmental challenges confronting the nation cannot just be overcome within the shortest possible time; not even issues like desertification and climate change that now determines how long man can exist on planet earth. This is so because, many people have failed to understand that cutting down trees, engaging in bad farming practices, bush burning, negative mining practices, and among others are the reasons why crop yields have reduced over the years and still continue to decline, water bodies (rivers, streams, lagoons, etc drying up) long drought periods, perennial flooding, and among others. These are just some of the effects of climate change emanating from bad environmental practices.

But as the world marks this year’s Environmental Day on the theme: “Many species, One Planet, One Future”, environmental scientists are trying to conscientize society to change from the primitive way of living and adapt to the use of environmental friendly methods like the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas that do not impact negatively on the natural habitat.

At a brief ceremony in Duuyin in the Tamale Metropolis to observe the World Environment Day which was organized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, residents of the Northern Region who faced most of the serious problems of desertification and climate change effects, were urged to stop persistent felling of trees, bush burning, group hunting, bad farming practices, overgrazing, among others.

In fact, there is no gain saying that the over exploitation of Ghana’s natural resources (plants and animals) leaves much to be desired.

In recent times, the Northern Region is experiencing plant and animal loss at alarming rates. This phenomenon is leading to gradual deterioration of environmental quality, thereby affecting environmental sustainability and species diversity. Continuous loss in plant and animal species is leading to the loss of reduction in vegetation cover, loss of medicinal plants, loss of biodiversity, decrease in soil fertility, reduction in the quantities and quality of available water used for various purposes, low agricultural productivity, among others.

Other problems that manifest as a result of species diversity loss include increasing and fluctuating ambient temperatures, loss of fodder or pasture, increase in heat and other related diseases (Cerebro Spinal Meningitis) and loss of agricultural lands.

According to the Northern Regional Director of the EPA, Abu Iddrisu, 16 million hectares of forest are depleted each year in Africa. Adding that, in Ghana and particularly the three Northern Regions, 22,000 hectares of tree species are lost annually.

He further indicated that, between 1938 and 1981, it is estimated that the area of closed forest in Ghana had reduced by 64% that is from 472,000km2 to 17,200km2 and open woodland declined by 37% from 111,800km2 respectively.

In pursuance of the mandate and responsibilities of the EPA, Mr. Abu said the agency was collaborating with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to supply 5,000 seedlings of cassia, neem and albizia to be planted and nurtured at various communities within the Metropolitan area.

The EPA was also collaborating with District Assemblies in the region to implement a five (5) year Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP) in the Northern Region, he added.

For his part, San Nasamu Asabigi, Deputy Northern Regional Minster urged residents of the Northern Region to serve as ambassadors of good environmental practices so as to help revert desertification.

He lamented that generations yet unborn will need to see some of the forest reserves and animals hence the need to consider environmental management as a collective responsibility.

TAMALE ACCIDENT VICTIMS TRANSFERRED TO K’BU

Six severely injured victims of the recent fatal motor accident on the Tamale-Savelugu road that claimed the lives of over 25 people, were on Thursday airlifted from Tamale to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in the nation’s capital for proper medical care, health officials have announced.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Hamza Jamani, told savannahnews the arrangement was as a result of the hospital’s lack of a CT Scan and an emergency or accident centre to handle the severe conditions of the victims. Most of the victims sustained multiple fractures and head injuries, he stated.

He said due to the nature of their injuries, the ambulance service could not also transport the victims to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, hence the need to airlift them.

Mr. Jamani disclosed that management of the Tamale Teaching Hospital through the assistance of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council airlifted the six victims by Air Shuttle, a new domestic flight operating between the Accra-Tamale routes.

The PRO of the hospital however stated that five of the victims had refused to be airlifted to Korle-Bu for treatment demanding that they be discharged so that they could go home and seek local treatment from herbalists.

However, management of the hospital which is currently under renovation, in collaboration with a team of young men has mounted search on three accident victims who fled from the facility after realizing that they were not seriously injured like their colleagues.

On the other hand, twenty-seven (27) people who died instantly after the accident, on arrival at the hospital and after some few hours on admission, were on Sunday September 19, 2010 laid to rest at the Tamale Central Cemetery.

Only one of the deceased, a chief whose identity has since been kept away from the public had been taken to his home village for burial in line with the customs and traditions of Dagbon (Dagombas).

Religious leaders, family members, leadership of political parties and sympathizers paid their last respect to the deceased as they were laid rest.

Issahaku Sualisu, Iliasu Osman and Abdul Ganiyu Ahmed, who are related to some of the deceased, told the paper at the burial ground that the tragedy had left a deep mark on their minds.

Mr. Abdul Ganiyu Ahmed stressed the need for the police to partner effectively with the Ghana Road Safety Commission to ban the use of such cargo trucks from carrying people.

Meanwhile, the driver of the cargo truck with registration number NR 1259W who escaped unhurt is also assisting the police in investigations on the circumstance that led to the accident.

In a related development, the First Vice Chairman of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Northern Region, Chief Sofo Awudu popularly n as Azorka has donated over 30 bags of maize to the families of the 27 departed souls and the chief of the Voggu community in the Savelugu-Nanton District, where all the victims came from. He also added a cash amount of over GH¢700.00 to the foodstuffs.

Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo, the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) also visited Voggu and made a similar presentation to the victims of the accident.

Led by the Northern Regional Executive of the NPP, Nana Akuffo-Addo prayed for the departed souls and made a cash donation of GH¢500.00 in addition to five maxi bags of maize towards their funeral performances.

ANALYZING WHAT NORTHERNERS THINK OF 2010 PHC

It appears the people of Northern Ghana are now getting more interested in Population and Housing Censuses (PHC) perhaps not because other “regions” or “ethnic groupings” are doing it, but because the economic indicators of the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions are continually getting worse by the day and need to be corrected as population in these areas expand.

Most public educations by past governments on their policies and programmes in the North did not go down well (not well understood by the masses) and is still the same in recent times. It is not because majority of the people are illiterate or unenlightened, but because they do not have time to listen to such forms of civic education rather, they are always at their farms or engaged elsewhere looking for food to feed their families whenever such education was/is going on.

However, having realized the importance of numbers when it comes to the development of the country, every sector of the economy especially in each region, they are well prepared and enthusiastic now to get themselves enumerated, come September, 26^th, 2010.

Northerners are also not just ready for the 2010 Census because they want to have quality and efficient healthcare services, quality education, good drinking water, electricity, good roads, food among others, but they want to be counted because some of them have been “crying” for a very long time to have their own Districts and Constituencies since numbers count when it comes to creation of Districts/Constituencies.

Besides, they believe getting their own Districts and Constituencies would fast track development in their communities, enable them have a traditional paramountcy, electoral areas, polling stations among others.

They are also seriously interested (especially those who are Muslims) in getting counted this year because the outcome of the Census would tell whether there are more Muslims in Ghana as compared to Christians (which was a subject of debate after 2000 PHC). Additionally, the PHC would also help Northerners to make a very strong case, which is, that the three Northern Regions are still poverty endemic and most residents continue to live on less than a dollar a day.

If all Northerners are thinking this way, then one will also think that they have a case or good argument to make, having been hearing or reading stories and articles about the sorry development situations in these areas in the past and in most recent times.

There is no denying the fact that poverty, disease, hunger, infant and maternal mortality among others are reaching a state of pandemic in the North.

Several researches and studies conducted by various academic institutions, think-thanks, non-governmental organizations, the media and State institutions, among others have shown that the North is not doing well. The North is failing in education, health, infrastructural development, provision of safe drinking water, afforestation, Millennium Development Goals, and among others which invariably affects the overall development of the country.

At a regional advocacy seminar on the 2010 Population and Housing Census organized in Tamale by the regional office of the National Population Council in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), revealed so many appalling economic indicators that no Northerner will be proud off.

The Northern Regional Population Officer, Chief Alhassan Issahaku Amadu, in a power point presentation on the topic: “The impact of rapid population growth on national development,” said the overcrowding nature of streets with vehicular and pedestrian movements, overcrowding housing stocks, increasing institutional infrastructure that still fail to accommodate pupils and students at public and even private sectors, the pressure on the natural environment, among others called for concern.

Experts say the world population has recently ticked past the sixth billion mark, and is growing by about 230,000 per day, over 160 per minute. It increases by over 84 million annually, a billion people over 12 years, whereas in the past it look more than 100 years for the world population to grow from 1 to 2 billion.

Also, during the time of independence in 1957, the population of Ghana was about 6 million. In 1970 it returned a population size of 8,559,313 with intercensal growth rate of 2.4% per annum. Census 1984 recorded the population of Ghana as 12,296,081 and 18,912,079 in 2000 with growth rate of 2.7%. The current projections are that the population of Ghana would be 23,458,808 in 2010 and 28,511,828 in 2020.

Chief Issahaku Amadu, said the consequences of rapid population growth may be perceived to be positive or negative. To the extent that they are positive, he explained that the demand for children should be high, but to the extent that they are negative, the demand for children should be low. People may cite market potentials for goods and services, increased labour force as benefits of rapid population growth, he pointed out. But said, “even though this stance may sound true, its validity and reliability is limited to the quality of the increased population”.

According to him, the 2000 PHC recorded 1,820,806 as the population of the Northern Region. The figure, he noted, shows an increase of 56.3% over the 1984 figure with intercensal growth rate of 2.8% which is higher that the national growth rate of 2.7%. However, the population expert stated that the population of the region has been projected to be 2,253,484 in 2010 and 2,705,785 in 2020.

The population figures quoted is de-facto population (according to National Population Council), that is, where the person spends the Census night and not his or her home region. Out migration in the three Northern Regions in search of jobs in the middle and Southern portions of the country is very high. This means that when the number of people of Northern origin is compiled, the figure would be far more than what the Census captured for the region. For example, the number of Akans (the largest ethnic group in the country) who reside in the Northern Region as captured by the 2000 PHC was 174,469 as against over 500,000 people of Northern origin resident in Ashanti Region alone.

According to the Population Council, Northern Region has the largest population of children (46.3% aged 0 to 14 years) against the national average of 41.4%. This is partly due to early childbearing and higher total fertility rates, as well as the youth migrating to the South leaving the children and elderly.

Indeed, whenever good developmental indicators are produced, the Northern Region is among the last, but when the poor indicators are produced, it is among the first.

For instance, statistics from the Ghana Demographic Health Survey 2008 and 2000 PHC show that the population growth rate in Ghana is 2.7% but Northern Region is growing at a spate of 2.8%, the highest in the country. Women aged 15 to 49 years with desire to limit childbearing in Ghana are 36.5% whereas in the Northern Region it is 20.0%, which is the lowest nationwide. Additionally, total wanted fertility is 3.5% nationally but the Northern Region is at 6.3% (highest in the country), whilst women using any family planning method is 24% nationally, only 6.0% of women in the Northern Region are using family planning methods. Young girls between the ages of 15 to 19 who are mothers is 13% nationwide but Northern Region is hitting 23% (highest with Central Region). The most shameful is females who are heading households, an indication that men in Ghana have reneged on their responsibilities or for want of a better word, turned into women. Female heads of households in Ghana is 11.0% but Northern Region is scoring as much as 14.1%, the lowest figure among 10 regions, but exceeds the national average. Population 6 plus never been to school, 38.0% in nationwide but 72.3% in Northern Region. Those who have not had formal education at all in Ghana is 31.3% female and 22.3% male where in Northern Region it is 67.5% female and 51.1% male. For proportion of land mass, 30% (largest countrywide), delivery conducted at home, 72.1% (lowest), postnatal checkups 40.4% (highest), etc.

It is good that Northerners have realized that effective participation of citizens in censuses and surveys make it possible to generate relevant data for effective use in planning for National development. The quality of universality associated with the 2010 PHC should inspire all and sundry to participate fully and effectively in all processes of the census to avoid the undesirable phenomenon of “Garbage in, garbage out”.

Chief Alhassan Issahaku Amadu, the Northern Regional Director of the National Population Council said: “We cannot rely on mortality and emigration to check our population growth. Not even disaster, epidemics, sporadic, pandemics; not even the AIDS crisis can relieve us substantially of rapid population growth”.

Perhaps, people who are not desirable of smaller family sizes should take steps to maintain the desired norms, use contraceptives/ family planning methods and modifying cultural norms and religious doctrines that do not promote the adoption of manageable family sizes and other behaviours.

Government and the private sector should create employment and put the right people into such jobs, improve upon the quality of education and train young people at all levels. It should also integrate population variables into various segments of national, regional and district development planning processes.

By: Joseph Ziem

A Journalist