Use festivals to promote unity and development - Aidoo-Mensah

Gomoa Dago (C/R), Aug 25, GNA - Mr Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah, the Gomoa West District Chief Executive, has appealed to Ghanaians to use celebration of festivals to bring unity, peace and development to their communities.

He said if festivals were regarded as a time for only merry-making, then the purpose for instituting festivals had been defeated.


Addressing a grand durbar of chiefs and the people of Dago to climax the celebration of the Akwanbo festival, Mr Aidoo-Mensah said if the living conditions of the people in a community remained the same without seeing any sign of improvement after a festival, then the celebration was meaningless.


He said Gomoa West District Assembly was prepared to support communities that initiated their own projects and added that festivals that brought residents and non-residents together must be used to initiate and execute projects.


"Make it a point to inaugurate a project at least each other festival to accelerate the 91Better Ghana Agenda' set by President John Atta Mills," he said.


Mr Aidoo-Mensah assured the people that the perennial water problem facing the town and its environs would soon be a thing of the past as the government had started solving the problem from Apam.


He said the road network would also be improved and the Assembly would improve conditions in the market to enable it to raise more revenue for the district.

Mr Aidoo-Mensah said the lighting system had been upgraded and power was being extended to places that have no light.


He advised them to take the upcoming population and housing census seriously and to ensure that each and everyone were counted.


Nana Eduafo VI, Chief of the town, said he would launch a five-year development plan to speed up the development of the town.


He expressed concern about the high cost of fishing inputs and appealed to the government to subsidize them to make them affordable for fishermen.


Nana Eduafo also expressed concern about the bad road network linking the town with other parts of the country and the acute water problem that had driven the citizens away from the town and appealed to the government to address these problems.