Chief of Viisey, Naa Alhaji Abdulai Ganiu Seidu III
Correspondence from Upper West Region
Viisey, a community in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region is reeling with a myriad of developmental challenges making life unbearable for the community members.
As a community yet to be connected to the national grid, the area is also without any health facility to cater to the health care of the people who always have to trek many kilometres for their health needs.
Aside from this, the poor nature of the road network in Viisey is also one thing that makes life unbearable for them.
These and many others are the reason why the people are crying for help to alleviate the suffering they continue to endure.
Naa Alhaji Abdulai Ganiu Seidu III, the Chief of the community, speaking to GhanaWeb, bemoaned the severity of the situation and said he has complained severally to the District Chief Executive (DCE) about the lack of electricity in the area for attention.
According to him, the DCE assured him he was making frantic efforts to ensure the community was connected to the national grid.
He noted that the lack of electricity in the area was a disincentive to attracting teachers to the place who he claimed often declined to stay there to teach. He added that the headmaster of the school in the community was currently not living in the area due to the lack of electricity.
Naa Alhaji Abdulai Ganiu claimed that he is yet to know the Member of Parliament of the area, Hon. Seidu Jasaw, to bring those problems to his attention as he had never met him before.
"I'm having nightmares about these three challenges in my area, talking about the bad road, lack of a health facility and worst of all, lack of electricity. For the road, I was able to spend money to do a reshaping of it to make it a bit better. But you know I don't have the wherewithal to connect the community to the national grid or build the health facility. So we're appealing to you to make the information out there to get the needed help. Even if they'll just solve two of the problems such as the health facility and the lights as I can always try to do a reshaping of the road given the needed help," the Chief noted.
In a serious argument but yet with a rather hilarious touch, a resident of Nadomeyiri under the Viisey community attributed the high birth rate in the area to the lack of any form of recreation for the people due to the lack of electricity in the community in response to the criticisms by health workers.
"For us, our only light is the brightness from the moon. We become happy any time the moon shines. We often feel that we're from the bush but we usually vote. So we're just punishing ourselves for nothing. So we have said that this year (2024) we won't vote if we don't get electricity.
They (health workers) often say that we like giving birth too often but what can we do? If you don't have lights anytime you enter your home that's what you'll be doing. Or what do you think? You too that's your television (using your spouse as a recreational tool) you should be watching. So they should try and give us electricity for us to stop such practice," he argued.
Another resident Usman Tendaana said: "The developmental challenges are many but the major one is the lack of electricity. When there is light in a place, it brings a lot of growth and development. But the lack of light has led to rural-urban migration as many of the youth have rather migrated to Wa. Even without lights, how do children study ICT? Even if they bring a computer here there is nothing the children can use it to do. Moreover, if we don't have lights, there is no way we can get nurses to stay here should we even have a health facility."
A brother to the Chief of the area, Siita Adama, stated that but for the reshaping of the road in the community by the Chief as part of his first anniversary, it would have been in a worst state by now.
"Our Chief reshaped the road when celebrating his first anniversary so that's why it's even a bit manageable now. We seriously need a health facility here if not, we are really suffering. Just recently when my wife was in labour, we struggled to transport to a health facility without getting a means of transport since we don't have a facility here.
So she had to give birth at home but later when we took her to the facility, I had to pay a GH¢50.00 penalty for the home delivery when that wasn't my making. So we are appealing to the government, NGOs and philanthropists to come to our aid so that we can get a health post of our own. We're also in dire need of a dam to get the youth employed as we'll depend on it for gardening to earn a living," Siita stated.
Arijata Adams, a woman who also spoke to us said: "We're really suffering in this community especially we the women. Due to the lack of lights, we have to go to Kadoli or Wa to be able to grind our maize for our TZ. Some of our children here have those grinding mills in Wa but they can't use them here because there's no lights here. And because we don't have a health post here too, our women are often blamed anytime one gives birth at home or on the way to a health facility elsewhere by the health staff. They often think the women deliberately decided to conceive at home, when that is not the case. So they should help us with at least two of the problems we're battling here."
All residents who spoke to GhanaWeb raised concerns over the poor road network of the area, the negative impacts of not having electricity in the area that has slowed down development in the enclave through rural-urban migration and as well as education.
They also mentioned the lack of a health post in the community which is affecting quality health delivery as well as the need for the construction of a dam in the area to provide an employment opportunity for the youth.
