Chiefs and people of Bawku celebrate
Samanpiid
Chiefs and people of Bawku celebrate
Samanpiid
Bawku (Upper East), 07 March 2001
The chiefs and people of the Bawku Traditional Area in the Upper East Region on Saturday celebrated their annual Samanpiid festival.
The essence of Samanpiid is to offer sacrifice and thanks to the gods for guiding and giving the people a successful farming season the previous year. It is also an occasion to pray to the gods for favourable rains and a bumper harvest in the years ahead.
In an address, the Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, expressed regret that the celebration of the festival had to be postponed last December due to the ethnic clash and high tension in the aftermath of the elections.
"Now that tempers have cooled, I hereby make a passionate appeal for reconciliation of all the people in Bawku, irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds, so that we continue to live in peace," the Bawku Naba said.
He reminded the people that it is only when there is peace that they can strive for development and improve upon their living standards, and therefore urged them to ensure that peace prevails in the area.
Naba Azoka congratulated President John Agyekum Kufuor and his government on their success during the December elections, adding "we the chiefs and people of the Bawku Traditional Area are most grateful to the President for appointing three ministers of state from our area".
He appealed to the government of the New Patriotic Party to continue with the rural electrification programme in order to minimise the tendency of the youth migrating from the rural areas to the urban centres for better social amenities.
The Bawku Naba called on the government to build dams in the area to enable the people to undertake an all-year round farming.
He asked his divisional chiefs to encourage the formation of neighbourhood watchdog committees to assist the police to curb armed robbery in the traditional area.
Mr. Joseph Akudibilla, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Garu-Tempane constituency, said President Kufuor appointed three people from the Bawku area as ministers out of his love for the people.
He therefore asked them to reciprocate the President's gesture by allowing peace to prevail in the area in order to facilitate development.
The MP advised the people not to allow their political differences to create disunity among them but should always work towards promoting peace and unity.
GRi…/
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