Telecom companies make their presence felt at Yam Festival

Ho, Sept 26, GNA - The titans in the telecom business in Ghana on Saturday made their presence felt at the Asogli 2011 Yam Festival durbar grounds in competition for attention.

The yellow, blue and the red banners, buntings, fliers and flags of the MTN, Tigo and Vodafone overshadowed the atmosphere at the approaches and the venue of the durbar, Jubilee Park, until the retinue of chiefs, resplendent in traditional attires, arrived to put a cultural stamp on the event.

At the venue all canopies bore insignias of the telephone companies with reserved seats having sashes in the colours of a particular operator.

The theme of the festival, “Our Politics Must Bring About Peace, Unity and Development”, Togbe Anikpi III, Chief of Ho-Heve and Head of the Festival Planning Committee, said was to create the platform to discuss raging political intolerance in Ghana.

Diplomats, business people, chiefs from across Ghana, friends and associates of Togbe Afede XIV, King of the Asogli State, scores of government officials and large numbers of local and visiting revelers attended the durbar.

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, read a speech for Vice President John Dramani Mahama, reiterating that the government would fulfill promises it made to the people of the Volta Region.

The major projects listed to be redeemed include the Eastern Corridor Road and University of Allied Sciences, whose bill is ready to be laid before Parliament when the house resumes sitting in October.

He also repeated that Ho, the Volta Regional capital, was billed for a complete facelift under the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Project (GUMPP).

Vice President Mahama made fresher promises of fishing landing sites and agro-businesses in the Region.

Togbe Afede, who revived the Yam Festival on his installation in 2003 and marketed it to become a huge socio-economic platform for the Asogli people, appealed to politicians to use temperate language in their dealings with opponents.

He said it was bad for politicians to willfully vilify one another and advised that they (politicians) ensured that self-interest was not the push for their pursuits.

Highpoints in the month-long activities for the Asogli 2011 festival include a business trip to China, a visit to Notsie in Togo from where the Ewes migrated from to settle in Ghana and the launch of the translated English version of “Die Ewe Stamme.”

The almost extinct book, Pro Komla Amoaku, a facilitator of the project, said at its launch on Friday, was originally written by Jakob Spieth, a German Missionary in 1906.

The most patronized function of the festival, as over the years, was the heralding of the new yam that this year was on September 16.

Hordes of people crammed the streets, dressed in varying ways, fanciful, seductive and grotesque, letting-out in dances, songs and shrills, to announce the new harvest, as commercial concerns roamed the streets to maximize sales.

Among the dignitaries at the function were Togbe Agokoli IV, Chief of Ewes in Togo who presided, Naa Professor John Nabila President of the National House of Chiefs and Mr Alexander Asun-Ahensan, Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture.

The ceremony was characterized by mystic performances and traditional dances.