We are keen on promoting cultural heritage - Zongo Ministry

The Ministry of Inner-City and Zongo Development (MICZD) recently presented an amount of GHC5,000 and some assorted items to organizers of this year’s ‘Garigajiya’ at Kumasi in the Ashanti Regional capital as part of its cultural preservation and promotion mandate.

The items presented include 30 crates of assorted drinks, 30 boxes of Voltic mineral water and 2,000 pieces of bottled ‘Bissap’ drink locally known as Sobolobo.

‘Garigajiya’ is a cultural display held after the Ramadan period to showcase the various cultural heritages of all the people of Northern extracts living in the Zongo communities in the Ashanti Region to foster peace and unity among their rank and file.

The cultural display which has been held over the past eleven years have been a hotspot for the people living in the Zongo communities in the region come together.

Presenting the items to the organizers on behalf of the Minister Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface; Dr. Joseph Darmoe, a Director of the Ministry said the development of inner-city areas and the Zongo communities are of key concerns to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by His Excellency the president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his Vice president Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia.

“Historically, politics; internal fighting as a result of ethnicity and chieftaincy related issues; low investment in the economy stimulating activities, low levels of education among others has been the bane of the development of the area,”’ he stressed.

He noted that all these have led to both voluntary and forced migration of the people from the North to other parts of the country in search of better socio-economic well-being.

This migration leads to informal settlement and overpopulation in the capital, he stressed.

It is in view of this, that Ghana has taken the lead by establishing a Ministry to ensure the “excluded are included” in its development orientations, he explained.

According to him, the ceremony presents a reflection of the rich cultural differences the people of Ghana and what they can do.

‘’What we need to do as country is to ensure we acknowledge the richness of the country’s culture, preserve and develop it and be able to translate it into productive ventures for the society to benefit from it,” he said.

“We cannot just come here and display our rich cultures and traditions to ourselves and go back home poor. Let‘s find a way to make it economically and socially viable,’’ he intimated.

He reiterated that the NPP government has as one of its prime goals as facilitating a broad-based infrastructure, social and economic development of the inner-city and Zongo communities within the context of inclusive, resilient, safe human settlements and sustainable urban development.

He added that to achieve this goal, the Ministry has developed programmes and projects in the following categories: infrastructure enhancement and sanitation, economic empowerment and social development, security and crime control as well as cultural heritage preservation and promotion including heritage preservation, cuisine promotion, built heritage listing and ethno-religious dialogue.

Speaking in an interview, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly also in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Alidu Seidu appealed to the Ministry to take steps to adopt the programme and make it the Ministry’s own to generate revenue.

He suggested the Ministry could transform it into a competition where prizes will be given to the best performers at the end of the day.

According to him, this will foster unity and cohesion among the various ethnic groups that participate in the competition of cultural display.

The colourful traditional display of culture was attended by the Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei Mensah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asutufi South-Collins Dauda and Muntaka Mohammed, the MP for Asawase and Nana Ampofo Kyei-Baffour, the Asemhene and a representative of the Asantehene Osei Tutu II.