The Chiefs and people of Moshies’ in Bawku and its environs have celebrated their 4th Annual Buud Yelle festival with a call on the people in the area to prioritize peace. They were also charged to support any initiative by government that is geared towards development in the area.

The celebration of the Annual Buud Yelle festival brings Moshies’ from all over the region and beyond to participate in the event. It therefore forges unity among the people and helps bring about development.

The festival also offers an opportunity for the youth to learn their culture and not to be alienated by the influence of foreign culture. Amidst drumming and dancing, speaker after speaker noted that modernization has led to the adulteration of the region’s rich cultural heritage as foreign gadgets are now played at most social activities such as funerals, naming ceremonies weddings among others.

These according to them, has resulted in most cases the cause of teenage pregnancies, school drop outs among others in the region.

The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Frank Fuseini Adongo, reiterated the President Nana Addo’s led administration commitment to building a future of hope for the citizens of the country with its pragmatic policies and programs.

He said over 100 thousand youth will be engaged this year under the youth and employment modules that have been rolled out.

He revealed that the security services will also employ over four thousand youth to beef up their numbers to assist in maintaining law and order in the various communities across the country.

Mr. Adongo said a total of 26 thousand, five hundred and twenty farmers in the region benefited from the government’s revolutionary agricultural policy dubbed “Planting for Food and Jobs”.

He revealed the number of farmers expected to benefit from the program this is year is about 500 thousand across the country and the Upper East alone, those who have expressed interest to be registered under the program are 69 thousand so far.

Mr. Adongo said over 200 tractors and their machine implements will also be distributed this year and fifty Farmers Service Centres, FSC, established to offer technical support to farmers.

The Municipal Chief Executive of Bawku, Hajia Hawa Ninchemah, commended the security agencies, the traditional authorities, Bawku Inter-Ethnic, Peace Council, Religious leaders and civil society organizations towards the peace building process so far.

She said peace is the recipe for development and every society that fails to develop fails to exist.

Hajia Ninchemah stated that development they desire to see will only become an illusion if there is no peace on the land.

She emphasized that they will have themselves to blame if they become their own enemies and fight among themselves and therefore become a stumbling block to their own development.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka, called on stakeholders to support the on-going efforts by the government and other bodies including CSOs, the Bawku Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee and the security agencies to maintain the existing peace in the area.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Chairman of the Moshie Youth Association, Alhaji Imoro Kudiima, noted that the youth was the driving force for national development and that there was the need for them to equip themselves with employable skills that will help develop their future.

He urged the youth to use the occasions to fraternize and make friends with people in the communities in order to build stronger relationships.

He said young people in Bawku were committed to sustaining the peace process and called on other youth Associations within and outside Bawku to contribute towards achieving a sustainable peaceful environment for development.

The Chairman commended government for its efforts in bringing development to the area and said more needed to be done in the areas of education, health and the road network which had become a worry to the people.

The festival brought together dignitaries including former Member of Parliament for Madina in the Greater Accra Region, Alhaji Amadu Sorogo among others.

By Samuel Ayammah