Support govt to fix country — Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II
The President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, has called on the people, including traditional rulers to support the government to fix the country as demanded by some citizens.
According to him, the “Fix the country campaign is not only targeting the government, but traditional leaders, the clergy and politicians because the youth feel that leaders in the country in general have disappointed them".
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Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, who is also the Omanhene of the Dormaa Traditional Area, said while some of them were in support of the call, they condemned attempts by others to use the campaign as an opportunity to verbally attack some leaders in the country.
“Some of us are in support of the fix the country campaign, but we are against insults,” he added, and appealed to the youth to avoid insults and attacks in their call for good governance.
Event
Osagyefo Agyemang Badu II made the call at the first general meeting of the house this year in Sunyani, the Bono Regional capital.
He further described the campaign as appropriate and called on the government to accept the criticisms by working to meet the demands of the youth, adding that constructive criticism only helped to put pressure on the government to work hard to improve on the wellbeing of the people.
For instance, he said what the campaigners were saying about “galamsey” was a fact because “galamsey cannot be done in a community without the knowledge of chiefs”, and appealed to chiefs to stop releasing lands for illegal mining activities.
Development fund
The president said the house would establish a Bono Regional Development Fund (BRF) this year for the accelerated development of the region.
Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II said the house had already raised some money for the fund and was preparing to mobilise more before the launch of the fund.
He urged traditional authorities to partner the government to develop the country, saying “government alone cannot develop the country”.
“The government and traditional authorities are partners in development so we should not sit back and watch the government struggle alone,” the president said.
Teenage pregnancy
The Dormaahene further expressed concern about the increasing number of teenage pregnancy and prostitution in the region, saying “though teenage pregnancy is a national problem, the Bono Regional statistics is high”.
Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, therefore, called on the regional minister to work with queenmothers and security agencies in the region to stop the scourge.
On chieftaincy disputes, he said the house was still working towards resolving most disagreements on chieftaincy, adding that out of the 17 paramountcies in the region, only nine of them formed the house, while the remaining ones were still grappling with the settling of disputes among themselves.
Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II also mentioned roads, hospitals, water and expansion of electricity to remote areas as some of the priorities of the house.
He particularly mentioned the Berekum-Sampa road as one of the deplorable roads which had been neglected by successive governments and appealed to the government to help improve the road network in the region.
Illegal timber logging
The Bono Regional Minister, Mrs Justina Owusu-Banahene, said the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), was collaborating with security agencies to help stop illegal timber logging and mining activities in the area.
She entreated the house to take interest in the Green Ghana project which involved a massive nationwide tree planting exercise by the government.
Mrs Owusu-Banahene also expressed concern over the prevailing chieftaincy and land disputes within the traditional areas in the region and said such occurrences did not augur well for the socio-economic development of the region.