Eastern Nzema Traditional Council climax Kundum festival with fanfare

This year’s Kundum festival celebrated by the Chiefs and people of Eastern Nzema Traditional Council in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region have been climaxed with an entertainment.

The festival which is celebrated by the Ahantas and Nzema people of the Western Region is an occasion to render thanksgiving to God for the abundance of food at the end of the harvest period.

The week-long festival saw activities such as clean-up exercise, marathon race, cooking competition, street carnival jam, beach soccer, free health screening, fitness walk, grand durbar and a thanksgiving service.

This year's celebration was on the theme, "Improving Education Through Our Culture and Heritage".

On Monday, October 22, 2018, the Paramount Chief of the area, Awulea Amihere Kpanyinli III led some sub-chiefs and his subjects to clean the principal streets within the area.

On Tuesday, October 23 at the Paramountcy, Awulea Amihere Kpanyinli III gave educational scholarship to twenty-two (22) brilliant and needy students to further their education at the various Senior High Schools in the country.

Hormah's Hope for Women Foundation, an NGO based in the area in collaboration with Eastern Nzema Traditional Council and Fitlink Fitness organized Community Fitness Walk and Free Health Screening at Akpandue SDA School in the District on Saturday, October 27 2018 to save lives.

The festival brought together people from far and near.

Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and government functionaries graced the grand durbar which attracted over 1000 people.

The Eastern Nzema Traditional Council is the highest Traditional Authority in Nzema with its traditional capital at Atuabo, which is the seat of the Paramountcy and where the Omanhene resides.

The Eastern Nzema Traditional Council covers a total area of 999.8Km square which constitutes about 9.8 per cent of the land mass of the Western Region and headed by the Paramount Chief, Awulea Amihere Kpanyinli III.

The Council has thirty-two (32) Chiefs and Queen Mothers and about thirty-six Odikros over the various villages.

Data from the 2020 Population and Housing Census (PHC) indicates that the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council had a population of 87,501 constituting 3.7 per cent of the entire population of the Western Region.

Addressing the durbar on Sunday, October 28, 2018, the Paramount Chief of Eastern Nzema Traditional Council, Awulea Amihere Kpanyinli III thanked God for granting them the opportunity to climax the festival.

"Indeed, today marks a special day for all of us gathered here to witness another climax of the Kundum celebration of the Chiefs and people of Ellembelle; and wish to thank the Almighty God for granting us this opportunity," he stated.

He expressed profound gratitude to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his entourage for honouring their invitation to climax the 2018 Kundum festival with them.

"In the spirit of the 2018 Kundum festival I sincerely welcome all of you, especially the Vice President of our Nation, His Excellency Mahamudu Bawumia, who is our Special Guest and the Ministers that travelled along", he acknowledged.

He added, "I speak on my behalf and the people of Ellembelle today we are honoured beyond words to have you here in the final celebration of the 2018 Kundum festival".

Awulae Amihere Kpanyinli III who is also the Vice President of Western Regional House of Chiefs said the role of the citizenry to build the nation was paramount and entreated all Ghanaians to contribute to the growth and development of the country.

"Our role as Citizens is very important in the building of this Nation. It is, therefore, upon us the Citizens to stay in there with the government as it managers and distribute the resources. A song that always reminds us where we should stand as people and Citizen of this great Nation, 'yen ara asse ne".

He, therefore, called on the Oil and Gas companies to open more opportunities for Ellembelle District.

He pledged his commitment to these companies that the area has opened its doors for competitive in luring business opportunities to create more employment opportunities.

He, therefore, appealed to the government as a matter of urgency to construct the Nkroful road, the birthplace of Dr Kwame Nkrumah

He bemoaned the activities of Okada business in the District and revealed that the youth are losing their lives.

He urged the government to properly regulate the Okada operations and added the Okada riders should do everything possible to register their motorbikes.

He also expressed worry that these riders are school age people, untrained operators, overloading, not using protective gear both riders and operators.

He appealed to government to do well to build the Atuabo Free Port which was abandoned by the NDC government to reduce unemployment in the area.

The Paramount Chief charged companies in the area to support infrastructure and speed up development of the District.

Awulae Amihere also appealed to government to relocate the Tullow office in Takoradi to the Ellembelle District.

Awulea used the occasion to thank President Akufo-Addo for the introduction and implementation of the Free SHS flagship program to help parents and guardians across the country, especially those in the rural communities.

The MP for the area, Mr. Kofi Buah said the District performance in the BECE had dropped over the past two years and called for concerted efforts to prepare the children with requisite skills to arrest the situation to succeed in the future.

He tasked companies in the District to formalize their long-term agreements with the communities and live up to their corporate social responsibility.

Mr. Buah reminded the people that "it was only a united front that could propel the development of the area but not partisan politics"

District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Mr. Kwasi Bonzo on behalf of the Assembly donated GHc10,000 as seed fund to support the Omanhene Education Trust Fund.

He said the District had trained 40 smart and intelligent graduates to go round and collect data about people in the District in the next two months.

Mr. Bonzo said the District had awarded scholarships to many students to pursue higher education and tap their expertise to develop the area.

He also revealed that the District has also benefited from the government's Nation Builder's Corps, (NaBCO) of recruiting 250 graduates.

On his part, Vice President Dr. Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia gave a strong indication that government would take the necessary measures to conclude negotiations to build the Atuabo Free Port to provide more jobs to indigenes in and around Atuabo and the Western Region.

He said the Port was dear to the heart of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his quest to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians.

Dr. Bawumia said the project was awarded to Lonhro Company from the UK by the NDC government but disappointed the government brought the project to a standstill.

"However, government would persist to ensure that the Atuabo Port became a reality to offer services in the oil and gas enclave and improve the living conditions of the people", he assured.

The Vice President asked the Chiefs and people to enrich the festival and make the area a potential tourist destination in the coming years.

He said government would make provision for educational inputs to train the human resource base to accelerate the socio-economic development of the county.

Dr. Bawumia who taunted a litany of achievements and social intervention policies embarked upon by government in the last 20 months, said the one million dollar fund for each Constituency would be considered in the 2018 budget proposal and tasked development partners to commence preparations for the use of the fund before January 2019.

He also mentioned the Free SHS policy, NaBCO, Planting for Food and Jobs, One District One Factory policy, Digital Address System, Ghana Card and others and therefore called on the people to rally behind President Akufo-Addo's government.

He urged oil and gas companies in the Nzema area to be mindful of their corporate social responsibility and improve the quality of life of the people.

Dr. Bawumia said a fertilizer plant would be established in the Jomoro Municipality and assured that government would tackle the Okada form of transportation to inure to the benefit of the people.

The festival was finally climaxed with a beach jam which was organized by Hormah's Hope for Women Foundation under the auspices of the NPP's Western Regional Treasurer to entertain the people.

Artistes who rocked the stage included Kuami Eugene, and some local artists of the area.