Traditional Rulers In Northern Region To Lead Fourth NSD

Alhaji Mohammed M. Limuna

In a build up to the fourth National Sanitation Day (NSD) campaign set to be rolled out in the entire Northern Region come February 7, a team of government officials are to pay courtesy calls on all four traditional kingdoms in the area to solicit their support to make the planned event a success.

The team, which will be divided into two groups, would visit the Yagbonwura Tuntumba Borese Sulemana Jakpa I of the Gonjaland Kingdom, the Nayiri Mahami Bohagu Sheriga of the Mamprugu Kingdom, the Kampakuya Naa Abdulai Yakubu Andani (Regent) of the Dagbon Kingdom and Andani Dasana Abdulai Yakubu (Regent) of the Nanung Kingdom. 

Addressing the media in Tamale, the Northern Regional Minister Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, said the essence of visiting the Kings and Regents of the four Kingdoms, was to solicit their support to lead the whole exercise in their respective jurisdictions.

Some Ghanaian youngsters cleaning streets, gutters

The Minister who was flanked by the Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Deputy Northern Regional Minister Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini, the Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency Amadu Seidu as well as all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, said the support of the traditional rulers, religious leaders and their followers is very much needed to rid the region of filth.

According to Alhaji Limuna, since the people of Northern Region listen to their traditional leaders and carry out their directives respectfully, it will be out of place to bypass them and carryout the exercise which might not receive the best patronage as it is anticipated.

Nii Lantey Vanderpuye

On his part, Nii Lantey Vandepuye also urged the media to join the campaign effort to make the outcome of the NSD successful. Adding, he noted that, the exercise received a massive support in the Ashanti Region last December due to media hype and involvement of the Asantehene Otumfour Osei Tutu II, and expected a similar situation in the Northern Region.

He also indicated that, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will be moving its entire administrative machinery to the Northern Regional capital town of Tamale ahead of the NSD event. The objective, he explained, is to bring governance to the doorsteps of the people.

The NSD was instituted by government in October 2014 to deal with Ghana’s embarrassingly poor sanitation situation. Citizens in various suburbs of the country’s cities, towns and villages, often come together on every first Saturday of the month to desilt gutters and sweep the streets.

WhatsApp Phones Trigger Teenage Pregnacy Rates in Mion District

Sumaya

A senior officer at the Mion District Social Welfare and Community Development Department, Iddrisu Alhassan Ganiyu has raised serious concern about the alarming rate at which teenage pregnancies are being recorded in the district, in spite of efforts by government to ensure enrolment and retention of girls in school. 

According to him, an average of 30 to 40 teenage girls become pregnant in the district every year and almost 90% of them did not get men to take responsibility for their pregnancies. 

Speaking in an interview with Savannahnews at Mion in the Mion District of the Northern Region, Mr. Ganiyu revealed that every year, an estimated 15 to 20% of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates in the district get pregnant or give birth to children even before their final exams.

He said that the Social Welfare and Community Development department had done its assessments and could confirm that the rate of teenage pregnancy in the district was prevalent in the rural parts of the Mion District. 

He said that the department with support from UNICEF had formed Community Child Protection Teams to advocate on the dangers of teenage pregnancies, early or force marriage and child trafficking among others. 

Mr. Iddrisu Alhassan Ganiyu indicated that the department had registered most of the girls with teenage pregnancies and counseled them to go back to school after birth.

He revealed that the rate of teenage pregnancies was more alarming in the remotest communities of the district, and that the men involved were mostly married men already with plenty children.

Mr. Ganiyu emphasized although the Social Welfare Department and the District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service had put in place several measures to curtail the situation, most parents in the district had neglected their responsibilities and they know little or nothing about the welfare of their children.

He said that most of the teenage girls were being lured into bed or being deceived by the men to exchange their “bodies with money and whatsApp phones”. “Every girl nowadays wants to use whatsApp phone and because of that they easily fall for those irresponsible but bragging men”.

He asserted that most of the girls interviewed attested to the fact that they accepted monies and gifts from those men because their parents always failed to give them money for school or buy sanitary pads, panties and other items they needed.

Savannahnews in a visit to Mion encountered one Sumaya Abdulai, a 13 year old girl who is already a mother of one year old baby boy.

Sumaya Abdulai is one of the many young teenage girls who are out of school due to unplanned pregnancies. She dropped out of school at primary four (4) when her father purportedly decided to give her out as a housemaid to a certain woman for financial gain. Sumaya told Savannahnews that the man who made her pregnant is a corn mill operator who has partially refused to accept responsibility for her pregnancy. 

According to Sumaya, her dream was to become a professional doctor or nurse, but her father’s decision to withdraw her from school has indeed cut short her future ambitions. 

She asserted that her father before withdrawing her from school was not paying her school fees, buying her books, dresses and was not even giving her money for feeding, a situation, which according to her influenced her decision to accept to be in secret relationship with the young man, who finally got her pregnant. 

“When I met him he told me he loves me and I told him that I was a small girl. But he told me that he will not do anything with me and also promised to buy me mobile phone which he really did including some dresses. I realized that he was good to me and anytime I went to grind our corn he did not take money from me, so I started visiting him and he also started sending for me and finally I slept with him. When my father sent me to Kumasi to stay with that woman, I found out after two months that I was three to four months pregnant so the woman brought me back to my father. My parents asked me who was responsible and I mentioned the guy. He told my parents that he cannot marry me but he will take care of the child. But after I gave birth he has refused to fulfill that promise so it is my mother who is supporting me”. 

Mion DCE, Mankanda

Sumaya Abdulai in tears said that initially, she wanted to commit suicide by poisoning herself and the unborn baby, because her friends were fond of mocking her and her father was also fiercely demanding for her head. 

She intimated that her father was not worried about her future but rather because she could not stay and labour or work as a housemaid to bring money to the house. 

Sumaya who is still aiming to go back to school to pursue her future aspiration of becoming a nurse or doctor asserted that she finally consoled herself after realizing that she was not the only teenage girl who was pregnant in the community.

Her major concern now is about how to work to cater for her one year old child and also gather some money to go back to school. “I go to farm with my mother and help her to do her fried yam business before I get food to eat everyday”. 

Sumaya’s mother, Madam Salamatu Yakubu (a petty trader) who is now supporting her and the baby told Savannahnews that she was willing to send Sumaya back to school but for now she did not have the money.

She sadly confirmed the ordeal of little Sumaya since she became pregnant. According to her, Sumaya’s pregnancy brought a lot of disgrace to her as a mother but she duly blamed her husband for his refusal to equally cater for his female children just as he did for his male children.

Efforts to speak with the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Mion, Mr. Dan Makandan on how the Assembly was taking steps to improve on the quality of education among girl child proved unsuccessful as his cell phone was out of reach.

Salaga North MP Accounts To Constituents

MP for Salaga North

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Salaga North in the East Gonja District of the Northern Region, Alhaji Alhassan Mumuni received massive endorsement and heaps of praise from Chiefs and people of the constituency, as he impressed them with several infrastructural projects, economic and social interventions.

The MP also a former District Chief Executive for the East Gonja District took his turn to account to the Chiefs and people of the area for all the various projects he had personally executed through his share of the MP’s common fund and lobbying within the last two years.

Addressing constituents at the Government for the People Forum and Exhibition at Kpalbe, the MP specially commended the District Chief Executive for East Gonja, Mohammed Aminu Lukman for his unflinching cooperation over the years and all other stakeholders including chiefs, religious leaders, security personnel and the East Gonja District Assembly for sustaining the peace and security of the area to allow for the smooth development of the constituency.

The Forum was meant to deepen and increase citizens’ interest and participation in governance and further promote accountability from duty bearers and public office holders in the constituency and the East Gonja District at large.

Since his assumption of office, Alhaji Alhassan Mumuni has chiefly prioritized the promotion of quality education as the main engine to propel the future aspirations of the people.

The MP in his first one month of office engaged all the stakeholders in an educational forum to discuss some pertinent issues affecting the education sector in the constituency including the lack of teacher motivation, teacher-pupils absenteeism, lack of staff and classroom accommodation and ineffective supervision among others.

The forum was followed by an institution of Best Teacher Awards Scheme which honoured 13 deserving teachers, School Management Committees and some outstanding schools last year. All the four Circuit Supervisors in the Constituency were also given brand new motorbikes and four gallons of fuel every month to enhance monitoring of schools in the area.

In collaboration with the East Gonja District, Alhaji Alhassan Mumuni has provided most of the communities with classroom blocks including the construction of 3-unit classroom block at Tunga at the cost of GHC80,003, construction of 3-unit block at Zankum at the cost of GHC80,056, 3-unit classroom block at Kpandu and another 3-unit at Vogyili all at GHC80,000 as well as the construction of 6-unit classroom blocks at Dakpemyili and Kpanshegu at the cost of GHC164,993 each.

The Salaga North MP is supporting some of the communities to build 8 no.4 rooms staff accommodation through the self-help initiative and he is also lobbying feverishly for the construction of a Senior High School in the constituency under the government’s Community Senior High School programme.

On energy, he said, nine (9) communities have so far been connected with electricity under the National Electrification Programme while 15 other communities are set to be connected to the national grid. He said that the Salaga North constituency could now boast of 60% of electricity coverage.

Alhaji Alhassan Mumuni has also procured 150 solar streetlight lamps at the cost of GHC70,000 to be mounted in the communities that had been connected to the national grid from his share of the District Assembly Common Fund.

He has on the other hand taken keen interest in the areas of water and sanitation. According to him, work was in progress on the laying of transmission pipeline as well as construction of the intake of the Kpalbe-Gbung Water Project. The project, which is about 60% complete and expected to end in April 2015, is being funded by the IDA/World Bank Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project. Five dams have been rehabilitated in five communities under another IDA/World Bank project called GSOP.

The MP is also constructing dug-outs at Chihigu and Kpegunayili from his share of the MPs Common Fund at the cost GHC40, 000.

Interestingly, majority of the people who contributed during open forum could not hide their strong affection for the MP who also remains their first ever representative in the law making House. The chiefs and people called for massive improvement on the roads in the area to facilitate their economic activities.

Alhaji Alhassan Mumuni said that the ruling government through the East Gonja District Assembly had developed 24.3 kilometers of the feeder roads in five communities in the constituency. Apart from the routine maintenance of roads in the area, efforts according to the MP were being made for the resurfacing of the Gbung-Libi road whiles works on the construction of the Kidenge road have been completed as at the end of December 2014. Works on the Buhijar steel bridge is also over 80% complete. The MP assured the people of government’s commitment to further develop the roads in the constituency and the district at large.

He thanked all the stakeholders and most especially the District Chief Executive for East Gonja through whose efforts and collaboration he had succeeded in meeting the aspirations of the people.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for East Gonja, Mohammed Aminu Lukman who was the guest of honour also commended the MP for channeling all his development interventions through the District Assembly to avoid duplication of projects in the constituency.

He assured the people of several development initiatives lined up by the Assembly for the constituency this year 2015 including the building of a new Senior High School.

Tamale Polytechnic Gaining Attraction to More Prospective Tertiary Students

The Tamale Polytechnic is setting itself to a higher pedestal and becoming more attractive to students seeking tertiary education due to a number of new career programmes  being introduced by authorities.

The new programmes are not only introduced to make the Polytechnic a centre of excellence but to ensure that students who pass through the Tamale Polytechnic become entrepreneurs or first choice employees for industries and organizations in the job market.

Apart the introduction of HND Communications, the Tamale Polytechnic is also mounting a Bachelor of Technology Programme in Accounting with Computing. Applications are already being processed for the first batch of students for the 2014/2015 academic year. 

The Polytechnic has also introduced a programme this academic year called the HND in Fashion, Modelling and Design, which seeks to further equip or mold hairdressers and beauticians to become more professional as well as bringing innovations into the fashion industry which is seen as an industry for school drop-outs and “kayayes” in our part of the world. 

The Tamale Polytechnic is also rolling out other new programmes such as the HND in Purchasing and Supply, HND in Refrigeration and Air-condition, HND Welding and Fabrication and HND in Civil Engineering, and B-Tech programme in Agricultural Engineering and Business Management among others.

Speaking at the 21^st Matriculation Ceremony of the Tamale Polytechnic, the Polytechnic’s Rector, Dr. Abdulai Salifu Asuro commended the government for the various supports but called for more infrastructural development in the School to accommodate the students and core staff. 

Rector, Tamale Poly

The 21^st Matriculation saw a total 2,876 students (1,930 males and 946 females) gaining admission into the Polytechnic out of the 3,789 applications received for the 2014/2015 academic year. The non-tertiary division of the Polytechnic also admitted a total of 1,314 students this year. 

The Rector of the Tamale Polytechnic therefore appealed to the government for the construction of a well deserving Auditorium and more lecture halls for the Polytechnic. The Tamale Polytechnic is faced with numerous challenges including the lack of students’ accommodation (hostels), poor campus roads, poor lighting system on campus and lack of fence wall to protect the lands of the Polytechnic. Majority of the students live in overpriced rented houses within the near and far communities. 

However, Dr. Salifu Asuro announced that the Polytechnic from its own internally generated fund was constructing fence wall, constructed a new entrance (Northern gate), machine shop and new market project to complement the efforts of the government. 

The Rector charged the students to be discipline and study hard and chart a progressive and qualitative career for themselves, so as to become entrepreneurs upon completion of their studies.