The Chiefs and people of the Asogli traditional area have celebrated their annual yam festival in style after four years due to Covid-19, as they displayed the rich culture heritage of the people in Ho, where hundreds of people from far and near thronged to witness the occasion.
The weeklong festival, which was themed: ‘’Peace, Development and Prosperity’ ’was climaxed with a grand durbar last Saturday with three main side attractions , which presided the durbar, namely Youth empowerment Day , Corruption Day where corrupt practices were discussed and the summit of Ewe Chiefs with the idea of uniting chiefs in Africa for development in the future.
Addressing the durbar, the former President John Dramani Mahama, who was a special guest, commended the Togbe Afede XIV for his continuous efforts at mobilising human and material resources in the area for development, and also promoted the peace in the area through the festival over the years.
Mr Mahama, expressed concern about the challenges fishermen faced in getting access to premix fuel to enable them to embark on their economic activities because smuggling and diversion of the commodity as well as living the sale of premix fuel in the hands of party executives who had nothing to do with fishing and had made the commodity expensive.
He, therefore, appealed to the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa show interest in the development to stop negative practices in relation to the sale and usage of premix fuel, to ensure that fishermen would get access to premix fuel to embark on their lawful duties without difficulty and help to sustain their economic activities.
Mr Mahama, was also not happy about a number of projects started by previous governments, which were abandoned because those projects were public funds, which should be completed to benefit Ghanaians and asked future governments to stop the unhealthy practice of abandoning projects started by previous administrations.
He observed that projects abandoned by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, were those started by his government, and others that could have been completed, were on slow pace and pointed out that the dual carriage road from Sokode to Ho has not been completed for the past five years, stressing that an interchange at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) junction was changed to a small round-about.
According to the former President, the five-districts water project had also not been completed as well as work on the Volivo bridge on the southern part of the Volta Lake had stalled and again, observed that land field site at Akroful had also been abandoned , which he said was unfortunate.
The eastern corridor road from Jasikan to Hohoe was stopped by the government, delayed the work for almost four years before asked the contractor to continue work and now completed, while Nkwanta through Kpassa to Damanko was yet to be constructed.
Mr.Mahama assured the people that when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wrestle power from the NPP government, all the abandoned projects in the Volta region would be completed , saying the Volta region would benefit from fair development particularly in the area of tourism.
The Paramount Chief of Asogli Traditional Area, Togbe Afede XIV said the youth empowerment day was used to empower the youth , the summit of Ewe Chiefs was the beginning of efforts to bring Africa chiefs together to support Africa integration efforts for the economic benefit of Africa.
Togbe Afede said he was sad about the high level of poverty among the youth and the hopeless situation of government’ s inability to address the economic challenges confronting the people in spite of the numerous economic opportunities that could have been explored to the benefit of Ghanaians including minerals among others.
He explained that the economic problem of the country predated far back before COVID -19 and the Russian and the Ukraine war, and stressed that development should be spread evenly and truth had become an expensive commodity and urged politicians to accept the truth since partisan politics was not helping as politics had become a matter of do and die because of the winner takes it all politics.
Government officials travelling with reckless abundance, leaving work they supposed to do undone, noting that this and many more were some of the wastes in the system that needed to be addressed and asked politicians to pay attention to the development of the people rather than to friends and families.
