Peace, Unity foundation for dev’t – Minister

Mr James Zuugah Tiigah, Upper East Regional Minister, has stressed that peace and unity were the foundation blocks for consistent and sustainable realization of growth and development.

The Regional Minister made the call in a speech read for him by the District Chief Executive for the Nadam District , Mrs Vivian Anafo, during the” Nangod Naab Goug” festival celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Nangodi Traditional Area.

He, therefore, stressed the need for all Ghanaians irrespective of their ethnic, political, religious background to live in unity and peace to help promote growth and development.

The biennial festival, under the theme:” Our Heritage and Our Environment; The Basis for Nabdam Development,” which is often celebrated in April every year, is meant to usher in the raining season and to seek for the protection and guidance of the ancestors.

“We owe it to our ancestors, our ourselves, our children and our children’s children to live in unity and peace. Our ethnic and cultural diversity should therefore be seen us a source of strength, and not any way a weakness”, the Minister emphasized.

He impressed upon the chiefs and people to develop the spirit of naturalism by eschewing all forms of indiscriminate bush burning, tree cutting, charcoal production as well as all forms of land degradation, which remained a challenge to environmental sustainability.

He urged the chiefs and people in the area to work towards restoring the game reserve, which some years back forested about 700 elephants and many other endangered species, and to also keep the environment clean to prevent diseases.

The Regional Minister gave the assurance that government would continue to roll out more pragmatic policies and programmes to deal with the issue of climate change and environmental protection and sustainable development.

He cited for instance, that the Climate Change Programme under the Ghana Social Opportunity Project (GSOP) had already intervened with affrorestation projects at Nkunziesi and Sakoti, including dams projects at Kugri, Zanlerigu, Awaki and Kalbeon-Solig, and urged all to plant trees to protect the environment.

The Paramount Chief of the area , Naab Kosom Yelzoya the second, who attributed the upsurge of indiscipline among the youth to the gradually losing of their sense of cultural identity and becoming more gullible to foreign culture, urged his colleague paramount chiefs and other stakeholders to help address the issue.

He admonished citizens in the area, especially the youth, to desist from acts such as bush burning, abuse of alcoholism, expensive funeral performance, and to aspire high to contribute to the development of the area.

The celebration attracted people from all walks of lives, including paramount chiefs, the leaderships of political parties and heads of department, among others.