Re: Your Intervention in Nandom Unparalleled

 

I have sighted a report with the above caption circulating on social media and carried by Ghanaweb as well.

The said report is purported to have been filed on the back of an address read on behalf of the Chiefs of the Nandom Traditional Council by Naa Domepreh Gyereh lll, Acting President of the Council.

 

It is however intriguing that such a major report on the visit of the President of Ghana to Nandom will be issued without the necessary courtesies and source. But reading through the report will leave no objective and discerning observer of the politics and development of Nandom in doubt that the said report was written with deceptive intentions to hoodwink unsuspecting readers into believing that Nandom has suddenly turned into New York under Nana Addo and the NPP government. 

What is even more disturbing about this report is that it makes the half truths and outright lies for and on behalf of our revered Chiefs.

This is unacceptable and must be condemned without any hesitation. The faceless or nameless reporter decided to reduce our Chiefs to a mass Choir of praise-singers and to paint a picture that our Chiefs in Nandom cannot make a fair assessment of the development trajectory of Nandom and represent same to whoever may be interested. 

First  of all, the reporter makes a categorical quote of our Chiefs in the heading of the report. However, reading through the report itself will reveal that the Chiefs never said anywhere in their address that "Your Intervention in Nandom Unparalleled".

If the reporter had to create this sensational headline and make a direct attribution to our Chiefs, one can only wonder the many more black propaganda contained in that report. 

It must be stated that the Chiefs could not have made that categorical claim because the Chiefs know that:

First, the PNDC/NDC government of Chairman and later President Rawlings made great strikes for the people of Nandom in terms of healthcare especially prevention and cure for killer diseases through vaccinations and other health intervention programs. 

Again, they know that this was the period that education in Nandom became a shinning example - churning uncountable numbers of intellectuals, professionals, technicians, the Clergy and many others.

They could not also have forgotten that apart from the Catholic Mission and their massive interventions, the NDC governments ranks highest in terms of education and health infrastructure delivery in Nandom.

The Chiefs could not in anyway have forgotten that the most transformative and politically fundamental decision ever made in the development aspirations of the good people of Nandom was the creation of the Nandom District, ably shepherded by the venerable Prof. Benjamin Kunbour as  Minister of Interior/ Attorney General and Minsiter of Justice in 2012. This single historic development was the game-changer and bedrock upon which all other initiatives sprouted for the benefit of the people of Nandom. How could the Chiefs have subsumed this to any other later interventions with the claim that was attributed to them?

Is there any plausible reason why the Nandom Chiefs could have thrown the NDC under the buss with interventions like the first publicly initiated and funded second cycle and tertiary educational institutions in Nandom in the shapes of Ko Senior High School and the Nandom Midwifery Training College respectively, the Ko Polyclinic and the numerous CHPS Compounds? What about the massive facelift at the St. Theresa District Hospital including a morgue?

How could our Chiefs not remember that the NDC brought electricity all the way from Akosombo to Nandom? Could they have been praising those who just connected some villages and forget those who made it all possible in Nandom?

How did the Chiefs forget about the new Police Station, the creation of an entire Fire Station with a brand new Fire Tender, the establishment of institutions like the Business Advisory Centre complete with the Rural Enterprises Programme and all its accompanying facilities and programs?

Did the Chiefs forget that before the NPP came to continue with the road works as of March 2017 to Hamile, work had gotten to Baselbe? Does it not stand to reason that the NPP could not have gone through procurement and awarded that contract in a short space of two months that the government had not even taken shape?

The list of transformative institutional, infrastructure and human resource development initiatives executed by the NDC could not have been lost so suddenly on our Chiefs.

Therefore, for any reporter to attribute the kind of statements, referred above, to our Chiefs is not only disingenuous but also unacceptable. 

It should be possible for our political players to engage in the political game without shadowing revered institutions like Chieftaincy to perpetuate political mischief and points scoring.

Whiles at this, I am sure the Chiefs also reminded the President and his appointees present at the function that Nandom is  now become a laughing stock in the league of basic schools education in the country after we became consistent at the bottom of the log in recent years. The Chiefs might also have told the President of the nefarious activities of smugglers that has created artificial shortage of fertilizer in Nandom and fully returned Nandom to the era of Kalabule.

Having commended the President for some road works, I am sure they did not forget to expose the President to the deplorable road networks especially in the Ko, Baselbe  and even Puffien Zones.

They did not also forget to mention that Nandom is yet to see the One District one Factory, the One Million Dollars per Constituency per year and the many others  that were promised by the President, Nana Addo and his NPP. I am sure the Chiefs finally highlighted that Nandom is still facing general deprivation and high incidence of poverty spurred by unemployment and a lack of access to basic amenities and other income generating activities.

 

Whoever is behind that report should not only bow his or her head in shame but should be remorseful enough to retract that report and unconditionally apologise to the Chiefs and good people of Nandom for seeking to mislead the rest of the world with that politically themed report.

derbieraphael@yahoo.com

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