WORK HARD TO IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY — KHALID (PAGE 20)

THE Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Mahmud Khalid, has charged the regional office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to be up and doing to ensure food security in the region.
"I am not satisfied with what is happening with agriculture, especially in the districts. Even in July, we are still ploughing in flooded areas,” he noted, and appealed to the MOFA Directorate to be proactive and rise up to the occasion.
Addressing members of the Lawra District Assembly at its first ordinary meeting at Lawra, the regional minister said it was the duty of the directorate to structure its strategic plans that would enhance food production and security in the region.
He again expressed dissatisfaction with the picture being painted on provision of potable water for the communities in the region.
Mr Khalid stated that even though existing statistics on the provision of water to the communities in the region was said to be about 75 per cent, it was not so on the ground.
He, therefore, asked the respective agencies in charge to take another look at the statistics.
Mr Khalid stressed the need for the agricultural officials to concentrate on the development of human resource in the region in order to be able to improve the available resources.
Touching on the activities of the district assemblies, Mr Khalid commended members of the Lawra Assembly for their sense of unity and understanding, and said that had set the pace for effective functioning of the assembly in future.
He also reminded them that there was still a lot of work to be done to improve the standard of living of the people.
"Where we cannot meet their demands, we must be able to explain issues in a transparent manner for the people to appreciate,” Mr Khalid advised.
The Lawra District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Samson Abu, for his part, challenged the assembly members to work hard to improve revenue generation.
He also outlined his vision for the assembly with respect to health care, provision of water as well as improvement in educational infrastructure, among others.
Mr Abu also gave the assurance that the assembly would collaborate effectively with the Urban Roads Department to work on the roads that had been destroyed by the current rains.
He mentioned some of the roads linking Tolibre with Dapulah, Kalsagri with Babile and Nandom with Nandomle.
Commenting on the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), the DCE said, the programme had offered direct employment to more than 240 youths in the district.
He, however, stated that the programme had been bedevilled with delay in payment of salaries, poor monitoring and inadequate training of personnel.

JUNIOR GRAPHIC FAN CLUB FOR T.I. AHMADIYYA JHS (JUNIOR GRAPHIC, PAGE 5)

The Upper West Regional Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr George Folley Quaye, has advised students to patronise the papers in the stable of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) to broaden their horizon.
That, he said, would not only inculcate in them the habit of reading but also improve their writing skills, keep them abreast of issues and make them responsible citizens in the future.
Mr Quaye gave the advice when he inaugurated the Junior Graphic Fan Club of the T. I. Ahmadiyya Junior High School (JHS) in Wa in the Upper West Region.
The executive are Yakubu Sheiba, President; Nifaabom David, Vice-President; Jamila Ibrahim, Secretary; Wmengu Frederick, Organiser, and Nwadei Barata, Treasurer.
Mr Abubakar A. Saffique, a teacher of the school, is the patron of the club..
He admonished them against the patronage of newspapers which contained nude pictures and sex related articles, since they were not good for their academic and moral advancement.
He also told them to spread the message about the Junior Graphic Fan Club to their peers so that they would also read the Junior Graphic regularly “in order to benefit from its educative content”.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr Mahmud Bin Salih, was happy that the school had been selected among those which would benefit from the Junior Graphic Fan Club concept.
However, he expressed concern over the inability of some students to buy copies of the newspaper due to financial constraints but added that the PTA of the school was working out plans to widen the scope of distribution to students.
Mr Bin Salih expressed appreciation to the staff and management of the GCGL for the opportunity and encouraged his students to regularly write articles for publication in the paper.
A quiz between the boys and girls of the school was won by the boys group.

HASMAL ESCAPE RELEGATION (BACK PAGE)

Sekondi Hasaacas escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth, collecting all the three points at stake in their match against Wa All Stars yesterday. Hasaacas’ lone goal was enough to secure them the needed points to move out of the relegation zone.
They looked more purposeful right from the blast of Kumasi-based referee Ali Musah Plato’s whistle, an indication that they were in for business.
They kept the vital area of the homesters boiling till David Anas broke the deadlock in the 20th minute from a rebound.
All Stars, who felt wounded by the goal, reorganised and took the game to the visitors, but Hasaacas’ defence, marshalled around enterprising Nana Kofi Egyir and John Ashong, held the All Stars attackers in check.

HASMAL ESCAPE RELEGATION (BACK PAGE)

Sekondi Hasaacas escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth, collecting all the three points at stake in their match against Wa All Stars yesterday. Hasaacas’ lone goal was enough to secure them the needed points to move out of the relegation zone.
They looked more purposeful right from the blast of Kumasi-based referee Ali Musah Plato’s whistle, an indication that they were in for business.
They kept the vital area of the homesters boiling till David Anas broke the deadlock in the 20th minute from a rebound.
All Stars, who felt wounded by the goal, reorganised and took the game to the visitors, but Hasaacas’ defence, marshalled around enterprising Nana Kofi Egyir and John Ashong, held the All Stars attackers in check.

HARUNA ELECTED PM OF NADOWLI ASSEMBLY (PAGE 12, JULY 8)

THE Upper West Regional Chairman of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Mr Calistus Haruna, has been elected the Presiding Member (PM) of the Nadowli District Assembly.
Mr Haruna polled 48 out of the 51 votes cast. Earlier, four other contestants, namely, Messrs Andrew Kpan, Gaeten Kunpuolo, James Dasah and Bamba Godfrey, who filed to contest the position, stepped down and threw their weight behind Mr Haruna.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Haruna advised against lateness on the part of members of the house.
He commended those who stepped down for him and all other members of the house for the honour done him, and pledged to seek their welfare and that of the people of the district.
The Presiding Member also called for support from all stakeholders to accelerate the development of the district.
Addressing the meeting, which was the first ordinary meeting of the third session of the assembly, the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Ceasar Kale, commended members of the assembly for their unity of purpose and the solidarity they exhibited during the elections.
"This quality is gradually becoming your trademark, and I think other assemblies must emulate it" the deputy minister said, and advised the new PM to lead the assembly with humility, dedication, honesty and handwork.
Touching on the activities of assemblies, Mr Kale urged them to institute the necessary mechanisms to enhance their revenue generation efforts.
He stressed the need for district assemblies to make the internally generated funds key in their annual budgeting, saying “you must not rely so much on the Common Fund.”
Mr Kale expressed regret at the anomalies that had characterised the allocation of coupons for the government’s subsidised fertilisers for farmers, and, therefore, appealed to officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the region to collaborate with the assemblies to normalise the situation.
He also pointed out the need for the assemblies to make sanitation issues their priority.
The Nadowli District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Abu Kansangbata, for his part, appealed to the house to endorse his plans to seek the support of some contractors to pre-finance and re-roof seven schools whose roofs were ripped off by a rainstorm.
He mentioned some of the schools, such as the Tangasia L/A Primary School, Sazie L/A Primary School and the Saan R/C Day Nursery.
Mr Kansangbata called for the support of all members of the assembly as it strategised to improve on its revenue generation, adding that the assembly would include in its budget construction of a modern office complex to house the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS).
He also assured communities without electricity of the government’s preparedness to extend such facilities to all parts of the country, and urged them to support this effort by being vigilant and by reporting people found tampering with some of the materials meant for the project.

DISASTER LOOMS, IF.... (PAGE 3, JULY 8)

THE Upper West Regional Director of Health Service, Dr Alexis Nang-Beifubah, has stated that the country risks a looming disaster, if it fails to put in place the requisite mechanisms in the face of an imminent outbreak of the Human Influenza A (H1 N1).
“We had all the time to tackle this issue since the first case was reported, but we have not done so. If we fail in the face of a possible outbreak of this disease, we would have to blame ourselves,” he cautioned.
At a day's sensitisation workshop on the disease in Wa, Dr Nang-Beifubah deplored apathy among Ghanaians and stressed that “we must begin to learn from other countries to be able to make amends”.
Citing the recent floods that hit some parts of Accra as an example, Dr Nang-Beifubah noted that it was all because “we have failed to learn from our past mistakes”.
He mentioned some similar influenza pandemics in the past as the Spanish flu in 1918 and the Hong Kong flu, which occurred in 1960 and killed one million people, and said the Human Influenza A (H1 N1) was not a new disease.
Giving on overview of the disease, a biomedical scientist at the Wa Regional Hospital, Madam Theresa Salifu, said the disease, which had been detected in South Africa, Egypt and lately Cote d’Ivoire, was transmitted through breathing, coughing and sneezing, among others.
She described it as a highly contagious disease, saying “we must all help in containing its infections if it is detected in the country”.
Madam Salifu mentioned some of the early symptoms as sore throat, aching muscles, hay fever and difficulty in breathing.

COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSES TO SIGN LOGBOOKS IN UWR (PAGE 22)

THE Upper West Regional Health Directorate is to introduce a logbook for community health nurses and field technicians as part of measures to streamline their activities.
According to the Deputy Director of Public Health Services in the region, Dr Kofi Issah, the measure was to sanitise the operations of those categories of health workers at the districts and sub-districts to improve health care delivery at that level.
He stated that since community health nurses and other health workers such as field technicians were the first point of call, they must live up to expectation.
Dr Issah was speaking at a durbar to inaugurate a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) centre at Nakore and Gbegru in the Wa Municipality.
He said even though more nurses were being sent out into various districts, the performance of the community health nurses, among others remained stagnant.
“We visit some areas and we realise some of the staff have either vacated their posts, absented themselves or were up to some form of misconduct”, Dr Issah stated.
Dr Issah said currently, some officers had gone round the region to collate data on personnel at the various districts as a first step towards sensitisation process.
He stated that the directorate had received about 224 additional motorcycles to augment the existing ones to be distributed to the respective health centres at the grassroots.
“Due to the poor road network linking the various communities in the region, we want to ensure that health staff got very close to the people hence the extension of CHPS services to all parts of the region.
Dr Issah said out of the 192 CHPS zones earmarked for the region, only 57 were in operation, and charged the health staff who were manning such facilities to work assiduously to make them fully operational.
He further advised them to be guided by the core values and ethics of the Ghana Health Service when discharging their duties.
The Wa Municipal Director of Health Services, Mrs Beatrice Kunfah explained the concept of the CHPS compound to the people, saying “It is meant to relocate health workers into communities to work in partnership with the community members.
She added that since its inception, CHPS had improved access and the delivery of quality health care to many communities.
Mrs Kunfah advised health workers stationed in the communities not to remain at the offices but to move to the people in their homes and equip them with the requisite information on their health needs.
The Wa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Duogo Yakubu for his part, urged the health staff to cultivate good working relations with the chiefs and people in the communities so that their efforts would yield the expected results.

MMDAS MUST REFRAIN FROM RELYING ON COMMON FUND (PAGE 13, JUNE 26)

THE Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Mahmud Khalid has urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA) to refrain from continuously relying on funds from the common fund and rather embark on aggressive revenue mobilisation method.
He said funds from the common fund were only meant to add up to what the assemblies already had, and therefore relying solely on them tended to slow most development projects and programmes.
Mr Khalid, who made the call during the first ordinary session of the third assembly of the Wa Municipal Assembly in Wa, stressed the need for the assemblies to identify the loopholes which hindered their revenue generation efforts and plug them.
He further called for effective supervision, which, he said, was very critical if the assemblies would be able to make any inroads with regards to their development programmes.
Touching on the state of development in the Wa municipality, the regional minister expressed regret at the incessant indiscriminate construction of houses in recent time by residents and appealed to institutions like the Town and Country Planning to rise up to the occasion.
He abhorred the perceived lack of assertiveness on the part of the regional officers of the town and country planning in supervising the construction of houses in the municipality, pointing out, “We have to ensure that every house constructed in the municipality has toilet facilities among others.”
That, Mr Khalid noted, was the only way to improve sanitation in the municipality.
He said those who gave permits must insist that toilets and all other sanitary facilities were part of the buildings before such people were permitted to embark on their projects.
For his part, the Wa Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Yakubu Duogo, announced some of the development projects earmarked by the assembly, which included construction of schools, public places of convenience and the provision of a borehole.
He also hinted that the Wa municipality was among four other towns selected to benefit from the government support streetlight project to be embarked upon in September this year.
Earlier, the assembly failed to elect Mr Adams Sulemana, a teacher, who contested the position of presiding member.
Mr Suleman could not poll two thirds of the 25-member assembly.
As a result, the assembly adjourned the election to reconvene on June 29, 2009, for members to vote for the second time.