Looming Tension In Troubled Buipe Again

Snippets of information reaching Savannahnews indicates that there is a looming tension in the entire Gonja Traditional Area and particularly between factions of the Buipe chieftaincy divide as the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama visits the area this week to perform a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla road – a major campaign promise to all Gonjas during the 2008 elections.

According to the information from some deep throat sources in the Gonja Traditional Area (names withheld), majority of Gonjas are very displeased with the John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama led administration of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), because of ‘their decision to interfere’ with the latest Buipe chieftaincy dispute.

It would be recalled that in 2010, the Gonja Traditional Council at one of its major sittings unanimously agreed to dis-enskin the Buipewura Mahama Abdulai Jinapor following an alleged show of gross disrespect towards the Overlord of the Gonja Traditional Area, Yagbonwura Tuntumba Bore Essa Sulemana Jakpa I.

However, the embattled Buipewura, said the Yagbonwura and for that matter the Gonja Traditional Council of which he was a senior member, had no jurisdiction to dis-enskin him.

The Buipewura, who felt his fundamental human rights had been infringed upon, headed for court to have the decision of the Gonja Traditional Council overturned. Indeed, he did succeeded and last year, an Accra High Court ruled in his favour and the Gonja Traditional Council asked to reinstate him to his position as substantive chief for Buipe (Buipewura) with all other privileges. He was also awarded damages by the court to a tune of GH¢3,000.00.

Since the court ruling, there has been a serious stalemate between Gonjas and the ruling government to the extent that as one of our sources revealed, a message from the seat of government to the Gonja Overlord recently, inviting him to witness the upcoming groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla road on Wednesday January 25, 2012, was not welcomed by the King who still appeared to be angry with the government for its perceived meddling in the Buipe chieftaincy wrangling.

Our source said: “The Vice President John Dramani Mahama recently sent a message to the Yagbonwura to come and grace the groundbreaking event for the construction of the Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla road. But, when the message got to the King, he replied that he would not come and witness any ceremony. Because, he the (Yagbonwura) doesn’t understand why he will sack one of his sub-chiefs (Buipewura) for disrespectfulness and government decided to support him).”

However, Savannahnews has also learnt that some top government officials had been recently sent ahead of the planned event to plead with the Yagbonwura to accept the invitation to grace the occasion, since it was a major development project geared towards the good of all Gonjas and for that matter Northerners. From the grapevine, it appeared the Gonja King agreed to attend the groundbreaking event, but not until the D-day, this blogger cannot confirm this.

At the time of going to press, another source contacted by this reporter expressed fear of possible attacks and pandemonium in the Buipe area, should the Vice President John Mahama make a mistake and pay a courtesy call on Mahama Abdulai Jinapor or address him appropriately in the event ground (which he is likely to attend) as the Buipewura.

According to the source, all the residents of Buipe most especially family members of the lebupe gate (opposing faction in the chieftaincy dispute) want is that Vice President Mahama should just come straight to the event ground, perform the groundbreaking ceremony and leave them in peace. “Anything short of this, would lead to serious fight at the event ground or after the end of everything”, the source stressed.

Without any shroud of doubt or attempt to cause panic, Savannahnews can authoritatively state that all is not well in the Gonjaland most especially Buipe, as some of the information disclosed by our sources were unprintable and in fact, an indirect call for bloodshed.

Meanwhile, the 98mile Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla road has been on the drawing board since the Rawlings regime, with promise upon promise in almost every annual government budget to construct it, but which never happened.

It is a major route linking the Northern Region from Wa in the Upper West and Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Regions. For instance, according to Damongo based non-governmental organization – Centre for Women Opportunities, an estimated 2 million journeys are embarked upon by students who criss-cross that road between the Upper West Region and Northern Region per academic year (first, second and third terms).

According to the Executive Director of CWO Mr. Cletus Zumeh, who like the Coalition of Agro Processors and Petty Traders, has been involved in advocating for the construction of the road over the years, said an estimated 400 gari processors are in the Damong town alone. “People including students schooling in the Northern or Upper West Regions all stopped there to buy gari when going to school. But because of the bad nature of the road and upsurge of armed robbery at certain periods of the year, many of such students prefer to pass through the Upper East Region for safety of their lives."

He also disclosed that people from neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in recent past come to buy gari, shea butter and groundnuts with loads of trucks, but as a result of the poor nature of the road, many have refused to come and instead, chose to travel down south to to buy these products. “Annually, the all the various categories of traders and transport operators loose over GH¢50 million as a result of the road not tarred”, Mr. Zumeh emphasised.

Thus, Gonjas, who are the major inhabitants along that route (from Fufulso in the Central Gonja District through Damongo in the West Gonja District to the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District) had lost hope completely despite a recent promised by the Vice President that if by 2012 the road is not tarred or asphalted, Gonjas should chase them (NDC or government officials) away when they come there to campaign for support and votes.

For now, Gonjas and for that matter the people of Northern and Upper West Regions can only hope and pray that the groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for January 25, 2012 would eventually come through in peace and the road duly constructed for them. They can’t entertain another campaign gimmick from another NDC government.

WMDA, GNFS Train Volunteers To Combat Bushfires

The 2011 United Nations Human Development report released in last November revealed that about 4 million Ghanaians are currently dependent on degraded lands, noting that the natural resources depletion rate for Ghana is also about 7% of Gross National Income of all the citizenry.

This could be attributed to the fact that about 30% of Ghana’s forest cover was lost between 1990 and 2008. The most interesting aspect of the report however, is that, 58.6% of Ghanaians who ‘know something about Climate Change’, agrees that humans cause global warming and climate change.

In Northern Ghana (Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions), it is undeniably a fact, that the biggest cause of environmental degradation is uncontrolled or indiscriminate bush-burning by the people during the dry season.

Accordingly, the practice coupled with indiscriminate tree felling and charcoal production, is further exacerbating climate change effects in the area as desertification, crop failure, drought, rising temperatures, flood, among others in recent years, have been seriously manifesting.

In view of the aforementioned, the West Mamprusi District Assembly (WMDA) in the Northern Region in collaboration with the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has undertaken a six day intensive fire training for volunteers in Mishio and Zua communities.

The training was aimed at imparting fire fighting skill and knowledge on volunteers and equipping them to effectively manage and adequately control bushfires within their respective communities and beyond.

It was also intended to consolidate the district’s overall agenda of supporting the global efforts in fighting climate change whiles strengthening local civil society capacities in taking up their own initiatives in the fight against climate change in the country.

About 80 fire volunteers were trained and they were taught topics such as general knowledge on bush fires, methods of fighting bushfires, the effects of bushfires, bushfire control, foot drills/fire safety, field experiment and practice.

This was followed by a one day entire community level fire prevention sensitization to climax the training program. The participants were taught how to create fire belts and military drilling exercise in response to rapid fire outbreaks in their communities and their surroundings.

The fire volunteer squads training program which was the first in a series, is expected to be replicated in other communities upon a successful implementation of the project, according to officials of the District Assembly.

The WMDA with support from the Hanns-Seidel Foundation (HSF) in September last year launched a nine-month climate change adaptation and mitigation project, under which the district was expected to adopt reforestation initiatives in the Mishio and Zua communities aimed at fighting climate change and land degradation which are said to be severe in those areas.

Annual devastating bushfires in Northern Ghana usually begins in the month of November and intensifies in December to February. The practice usually result in the destruction of not only tree vegetation cover but also both harvested and non harvested farm produce, thereby causing food insecurity among the already impoverished Northern rural communities.

Meanwhile, at the end of the training, each fire volunteer received a pair of wellington boots, cutlass, fire protective clothing and hand gloves as their individual fire-fighting equipment.

The District Chief Executive for West Mamprusi District Assembly, Adam Yussif, reminded the two communities that the dry season was the peak of bushfires and urged them to be committed in the fight against bushfires so that the little farm produce that had been harvested by farmers will not go waste.

The DCE also advised the two communities not to farm close to the river banks and cautioned them to give proper care to the tree seedlings planted along the White Volta River in order to achieve the goals of the project.

For his part, the District Fire Officer Alexander Amoah, explained that the exposure of Northern Ghana to wildfires stemmed from the single rainfall season that the area experiences during the whole year.

According to him, the protracted dry season which follows the short rainy season causes the Savannah grass to wither and render it susceptible to the least spark of fire. “Judging by the annual devastation caused by bushfires, there is the urgent need for all stakeholders to jointly find feasible solutions to this perennial problem” Mr. Amoah added.

The West Mamprusi District Fire Officer was hopeful that the training would go a long way to reduce the wide spread bushfires in the area and the Northern Region as a whole.

SOS: Monawara School In Tamale In Need Of Desperate Help

Most often we hear of the existence of schools under trees or in dilapidated structures in rural areas where people are still faced with the challenges of serious underdevelopment. But the situation has just manifested itself in Ghana’s third largest city – Tamale, in a suburb called Kukuo Village, which is just about 30 minutes drive from the Metropolitan Directorate of Education or the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to this community. Freelance Journalist Joseph Ziem visits the community to see for himself the only basic school which has been destroyed by rainstorm, forcing pupils to learn under terrible conditions and reports…..

It is the dream of the children of Kukuo Village also known as Shillayili, a suburb of the Tamale Metropolis to go to school and learn every day, as is the norm in all public and private schools in Ghana, except on weekends and public holidays.

But the dream of these children who are pupils of the Monawara English and Arabic Primary School, the only basic school located in the community seemed to be akin to building castles in the air; and this is due to the helpless circumstances in which they have found themselves.

The lack of support for the poor children and their parents towards the rehabilitation of the six unit classroom block which rooftop was ripped-off by rainstorm some seven months ago, has forced them to spend most part of the last two terms at home due to frequent rains.

Any day they came to school, they sat inside the roofless building as the sun scorches them till they close. Besides, when it threatened to rain, then it meant that school activities had to come to an abrupt end and all of them, including their teachers would quickly rush home.

As a community member said in a chat with this reporter as he toured the school with him, “these are some of the schools the Mayor of Tamale Alhaji Abdulai Haruna Friday and education officials were supposed to visit on my first day at school and not the well developed ones. I don’t think if any of them particularly the mayor should visit this school, he would have proper sleep at night until he rehabilitates it”, angry Adam Baba said.

The questions every right thinking resident is now asking are; will government achieve its loudly professed Better Ghana Agenda, and what about the United Nations Millennium Development Goal II which aims at achieving universal basic education by the year 2015, considering the plight of these innocent children who also desire to become responsible citizens in future if only quality education is guaranteed?

It is not surprising that the standard of education in the Tamale Metropolis has been falling so sharply over the years. Students’ performance at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in recent years is very abysmal. From 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, Tamale secured 60^th, 69^th, 88^th, 91^st, 89^th, 98^th, and 103^rd positions respectively, out of the 134 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly (MMDAs) in the country.

The Assemblyman for the Koblimahagu Electoral Area Iddrisu Mohammed Mustapha in whose jurisdiction the school is located told this reporter, that officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation were informed, but the only support they could offer the school was two packets of roofing sheets. “Also, the Metropolitan Education Directorate of the Ghana Education Service had been notified by the school authorities about the situation, but no support has come to the school yet”, he added.

Mr. Mustapha however, thinks that the destruction of the school building by the rainstorm was as a result of the contractor’s use of substandard woods for roofing, adding “if the woods were of good quality, the roofing of the building wouldn’t have been ripped-off by the rainstorm”.

The Head-teacher of Monawara English and Arabic Primary School, Saeed Achilo told this reporter in an interview, that school activities have been affected as a result of the disaster and instead of closing at 1:30pm as they used to, they now close at 12:00 pm, a situation he attributed to the hot weather the children were often exposed to.

He disclosed that the Kindergarten 1 and 2 sit under an ebony tree as one class whereas Kindergarten 3 also make use of his office pending when the building would be rehabilitated.

Mr. Achilo noted with deep regrets, parents frequent withdrawal of their wards to enroll in different schools, because of the dangerous nature of the dilapidated structure and appalling conditions in the school.

The school, according to him lacked textbooks, sanitary facilities (toilet and urinals) and water storage system for drinking and washing of hands. “The absence of these facilities compel the children to always go into the bush to answer nature call as well as force them and their teachers to go into homes nearby to drink water when they are thirsty”, the head-teacher stressed.

Moreover, teachers in the school in their desire to create a change contributed from their pockets and re-roofed a thatched three unit classroom block, which hitherto hosted Kindergarten 1, 2 and 3 with corrugated roofing sheets, and it now host class four , five and six.

Mr. Saeed Achilo therefore, appealed to benevolent organizations to come to the aid of the school, saying “parents of the children lack the capacity to assist and until assistance come from elsewhere, conditions will remain like this or even become worse, even though the teachers are ready to teach and the children also willing to learn”.

US$1.49BN NEEDED TO PROVIDE SAFE WATER TO GHANAIANS

The Ghana Water Supply Integrity Study (GWSI) report, the result of the Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Africa (TISDA) project being implemented by Transparency International (TI), has revealed that the country would require an amount of US$1.49 billion for the expansion of water supply to meet demand by 2020.

Quoting from a water sector development report of 2009, the GWSI study report also added that whereas an amount of US$811 million dollars would be required to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on water in 2015, average inflow of resources forms 35% of the level that would be required annually.

“Total financial investment needed to achieve MDG for rural water is US$505 million according to the report, disclosing that donor pledge from 2008-2012 is US$175 million leaving a gap of US$330 million for the rural water supply.”

These were disclosed at TISDA Regional Level Workshop on GWSI in Tamale organized by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), local chapter of TI in collaboration with Amasachina Self-Help Development Association.

GII, launched in December 1999, is a non-partisan, non-profit civil empowerment organization focused on the delivery of the essential themes necessary for the creation of a National Integrity System. GII is also a member of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) – a loose entity of selected civil society organizations, some state/quasi-state institutions and the private sector.

Its vision is to achieving a corruption-free Ghana in all spheres of human endeavour where people and institutions act with integrity, accountability and transparency. The mission of GII is to continuously create awareness about the negative effects of corruption and to empower citizens to demand responsiveness and transparency from both public and private institutions in Ghana.

The workshop, brought together various stakeholders in the water sector, and it sought to highlight the transparency and integrity aspect of service delivery in the country’s water sector which are emanating from the TI project (TISDA) implemented in about eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana.

According to Vitus Adaboo Azeem, Executive Secretary of GII, the TISDA project aimed at promoting accountability, transparency and integrity in service delivery, hence enhancing access to quality service delivery. Although Ghana, Senegal and Kenya chose to focus on water service to the citizenry, he indicated that some other countries focused on education and health.

He explained that the three year research project started with a desk study to provide an overview of the water sector in the Ghana in terms of integrity and performance. This Mr. Azeem noted involved a literature review, discussions with water sector actors and focus group discussions with representative of households.

The GII Executive Secretary said six case studies were held in Pantang, Madina and Nima in Greater Accra Region, Ho and Adaklu in the Volta Region and Bekwai in Ashanti Region.

The research findings show important integrity risks that need to be addressed in combination with measures to improve sector performance. Inequity it said is still considerable in Ghana in terms of access to improved water supply and price users pay, stressing that the situation is not in line with the declaration of the UN General Assembly in July 2010 that clean water and sanitation are a human right. The lower income groups suffer most in this situation, the report emphasized.

The report also observed that investment in the water sector is growing, but without improved efficiencies in implementation, this increase in funding will not be sufficient to meet the MDGs. It cited that project procedures which need improvement and benchmarking between projects is particularly weak or not done and further pointed out, that access to information on cost and technology improvements to make sector investments more efficient is virtually absent.

Allegations of corruption according to the report exist and involve high ranking government officials but also technicians from water companies who are providing illegal water connections.

Transparency, in the formal water supply systems, the report described as average, citing instances where in many transactions, contracts do not exist or are not clear. It stated that accountability faces limitations particularly related to lack of implementation of sanctions, stressing “anticorruption measures and incentives do not exist to encourage good governance.”

Meanwhile, the report revealed that accessed to improved water supply (UNICEF, WHO 2010) has risen from 56% in 1990 to 82% in 2008 which is above the target of the MDGs. This would imply that Ghana will meet or surpass the MDG target of 78%, provided that it keeps up with population growth and ensures that facilities are sustained in 2015. Both conditions however may not be achieved because coverage is declining and the coverage data of 82% are much higher than coverage figures presented by water providers.

The report thus recommended the need to streamline and strengthen anti-corruption tools and the capacity of sector agencies to implement these tools. Adding “there is also the need for donors to introduce anti-corruption clauses in all cooperation agreements, train their own staff or local staff to put these policies into practice and communicate on related activities and progress made, adhere to the highest standards of information disclosure and consultation for all water projects they support, put in place adequate monitoring mechanisms and enforce effective sanctions against corrupt employees and contractors.”

The report also recommended the to increase access to information to the public on the operations of the utility providers by publicizing utility accounts, public expenditure reviews and audit information, budgets, contracting arrangements and annual report.

It nonetheless suggested the involvement of users in decision making, tariff setting, among others. This accompanied by awareness-raising and capacity building initiatives would ensure that beneficiaries are empowered to play a meaningful role in the management of water resources, from the design to the implementation and supervision of Water Resources Management projects.

TAMALE SPORTS STADIUM UNDERUTILISED

One of the major reasons for the construction of the Tamale Sports Stadium was to give the people of the Northern Region a good feel of football thrill associated with the various national teams most especially the Black Stars. But five years down memory lane, it appears the multipurpose edifice has not been put to maximum use. Many residents are also fed up with authorities restricting Black Stars matches to only Accra and Kumasi denying them of the chance to watch their heroes and heroines also play in Tamale. Correspondent Joseph Ziem writes.

There was general hullabaloo that surrounded the construction of the US$20 million multipurpose Tamale Sports Stadium in 2006 ahead of the 2008 African Cup of Nations which Ghana was the host nation.

While most people thought that the region was a hot-blooded area and therefore was not a right place to host the tournament, others thought that those against had also failed to understand that when all means to unite a group of people who constantly fight over parcels of land or right to chieftaincy succession hit a dead end, it is only sports or football that could unite them.

Some self-centered government officials and key public figures outside government at the time supposedly tried all they could to make sure that Tamale never played a host to some of the participating teams. While some were seriously advocating that the venue should be moved to the Brong Ahafo Region, others also thought that the facility should be built in the nation’s capital, Accra or Kumasi. In fact it was as if some of them were ready to give out their pieces of land for free to government to execute the project.

The media in the region at the time played a very significant advocacy role trying to win the sympathy of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government through positive stories that seemingly convinced President John Agyekum Kufour’s Administration that Northern Region was peaceful.

Thank God that President Kufour stood his grounds and finally took a positive decision, probably because the then Mayor of Tamale Mohammed Amin Adam Anta was his darling boy as some people claimed. The stadium contract was eventually awarded to the Shanghai Construction Group of China to build it on a vast tract of land released to the government by the chiefs through the lobby of Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister at the time and also the Mayor of Tamale.

The Tamale Sports Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium mostly used for football matches and serves as the home stadium of premier league side Real Tamale United. It has a capacity of over 20,000 and hosted some matches during the 2008 African Cup of Nations including Angola, South Africa, Senegal, Tunisia and the Cameroon quarter final match.

However, five years down the line, many people are asking whether those who were against the construction of the stadium in Tamale were not justified after all, since it is not being utilized as expected.

For instance, they claim that many economically viable facilities such as conference rooms, gymnasium, forty-bedroom hotel, restaurant, stores and car park, are yet to be put to maximum use in order to generate enough revenue to develop other sports in the region.

Besides, the senior national team the Black Stars and the junior teams as they pointed out, are not frequently featured in the Tamale Sports Stadium when they have matches, a situation that is denying most northerners the opportunity to also once in a while see in flesh their gallant heroes and heroines.

While the Black Stars games are most often limited to only Accra and Kumasi, administrators of the game according to some sports enthusiast, have always tried to sideline the Northern Region when it comes to organizing high profile games because they think people would not patronize such games. Thus, most of the time it is only Premier league, Division One, School and College games and not even the national U-23 team games that are hosted there, a supporter of RTU Muniru Zaib told Savannahnews.

Senior Sports Journalist and Media Officer during the Ghana CAN 2008 in charge of Tamale Venue Ell Samuels, also told this reporter it may take the next 20 years for Tamale to host the next school and college games, adding “now that RTU is relegated, no one knows when they will return to the premiership and this means that the pitch will remain fallow till then”.

Mr. Samuels confirmed that with the exception of the stores, gymnasium and conference rooms, the rest of the facilities were currently not being utilized by officials, adding that, for instance the restaurant and forty-bedroom hotel could have been given to a private business entity to operate them so that government could take its share to maintain the stadium. “I suspect there is serious politics going on as to whom officials should give the facilities to manage that is why they are still not being operated”, he pointed out.

According to him, facilities such as basketball court, volleyball court, long tennis court and warm-up tracks could also be provided through the revenue that the restaurant, hotel, conference rooms, stores and gymnasium would generate in order to make the place an interesting recreational centre for the public to visit and pay money to have some fun. Adding, “The tracks in the stadium are peeling off and since there is still vast land outside the pitch, it could be developed for training during major events”.

The Head of Sports at FIILA FM also debunked assertions that people do not watch competitive games in Tamale that is why Black Stars games and other international friendlies were not regularly featured at the Tamale Sports Stadium, citing the game between Ghana and Uganda which saw the stadium filled to capacity and most people who did not get the opportunity to enter had to stand outside. “Besides, during the 2010 World Cup Qualification, the senior national team used the stadium to acclimatize ahead of their match with the Sudanese and that attracted the public to watch the game and also the local base Black Stars during the First Edition of the CHAN Competition in La Cote D’Ivoire trained here before they played against Niger and it contributed a lot to their qualification because of the way and manner supporters encouraged them on the pitch”, Mr. Samuels stressed.

Mr. Ell Samuels thus suggested that officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Sports Council and the Ghana Football Association should regularly host Black Stars games in Tamale because that in his opinion would contribute a lot to peace and stability in Tamale and Northern Region as a whole.

When contacted, an official at the Tamale Sports Stadium who pleaded anonymity said the decision to play Black Stars matches and other international friendlies in Tamale was often taken by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, adding “I can’t tell why such games are not often played in Tamale, but considering the match between Ghana and Uganda, it was well patronized”.

The official however confirmed that most of the facilities were not being put to good use because they are about 59% uncompleted. Adding, “Those facilities were not part of the contract agreement signed with the Chinese Construction firm”.

Alhaji Rashid Pelpuo during his tenure of office inspected the Tamale Sports Stadium and other sports infrastructure in the Tamale Metropolis to see how best the government could improve upon the existing ones and construct new ones to develop various sporting activities in the Northern Region.

According to a GNA report dated August 8, 2010, the former minister acknowledged the fact that the remaining uncompleted facilities at the stadium had not depicted its beauty and stressed the need for measures to be put in place to ensure that the remaining jobs were completed.

However, he could not stay in office for long to see to it that such unfinished business was carried out before he was kicked out by the President, John Evans Atta Mills.

As the official at the Tamale Sports Stadium put it “Ever since the visit of the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Alhaji Rashid Pelpuo, it is still not clear up till now whether there is some kind of decision being taken about the rest of the uncompleted facilities or not”.