My January – February 2023 “cross-over” from Tamale-Bolgatanga to Wa-Tumu. After spending the last week of January in the Upper East Region, it is now the Upper West’s turn.
When the Passion Air plane landed at Wa Airport, the first thing I felt was the reflection of the aluminum roofs of the buildings, knowing that aluminum is a good conductor of heat, and secondly the greenery of Wa. Again, this time we landed on the airport tarmac. On my last visit in 1998 with students from the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), a Ghana Air Force plane landed us on the rough untarmaced surface of the Wa airstrip.
Interestingly, when I tell my family and friends, especially the younger generation, that I am in Wa, some of them ask me, that is, where is Wa? When I told them where it was, they asked what brought me there.
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Wa is the capital of the Upper West region of Ghana. Until 1983, the entire northern region bordering Burkina Faso was one large region called the Upper Region, with the capital Bolgatanga. However, in 1983, the North West Region was carved out of the Upper Region with Wa as the new capital. The other half of the Upper Region became the new Upper East Region with Bolgatanga still as the capital. Towns in the Upper East Region include Navrongo, Bawku, Zebilla and Paga, known for the Crocodile Pond.
Towns in the Upper West region include Nadowli, Jirapa, Nandom, Lawra, Hamile and Tumu.
Tumu is the capital of Sissala East District, one of the 11 districts in the Upper West Region. Sissala East shares the border with the Upper East Region.
CEO
At dawn on February 1, 2023, we set off with armed escort towards Tumu. Tumu is close to the border and with recent events in Burkina Faso causing thousands of refugees to cross into Bawku in the Upper East Region, the 10th Mechanized Battalion Commander, Wa is not taking any chances. The 160km journey takes about three and a half hours. After interacting with the force that teaches Gender Mainstreaming, the return journey also takes three and a half hours, reaching Wa at 6pm.
Although some work has been done, the road between Wa and Tumu is generally not in good condition. When our team traveled from Tamale to Bolgatanga before we visited the Upper East, I thought the road was bad, it had been seen in the country more than twenty years earlier. For the Wa-Tumu trip, we wear masks not because we are afraid of covid-19 but to prevent the dust that fills the air-conditioned bus from entering our lungs.
In Tumu, we had the pleasure of reuniting with Rev Col David Bansibo (Rtd), former Director of Religious Affairs (Captain General) of the Ghana Armed Forces. He is currently the Parish Priest of the Catholic Church in Tumu.
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When I met a retired senior colleague at the airport, he said until the commercial air flight came to Wa, it took thirteen hours by road from Accra to Wa. A native of Wa, he appreciated Passion Air’s commercial flights to Wa which have reduced the travel time to one and a half hours.
However, if one lands in Wa, moving to the districts is a nightmare as one has to travel on bumpy and dusty tracks called roads. Of course, my trip to Nandom, Lawra and Jirapa some twenty years ago was nothing like what Tumu is experiencing today. People in the Upper West are of the opinion that while the roads are dusty and dusty during the dry season, they quickly become swamps in the rainy season with vehicles carrying food regularly getting stuck in the mud for days. In the process, the food that is brought in is especially likely to spoil, becoming rotten.
Over sixty years after independence, the state of our roads in the Upper West makes me wonder who we are as a people, and who we choose to lead us. So, what are the members of parliament and politicians in the West West doing for their region through the government, as we asked when we were in the Upper East Region?
I have not forgotten that, in Accra, where I live, the roads are not the best. Indeed, when the adjacent Community 20 has been fully paved, there was a cry in my community (18) as well as 19 that is, we do not have important people like MPs / politicians living here. Therefore, in residential areas that attract high Property Rates by the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) and the same Ground Rent by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC), the road is just bad.
However, for the road that connects the regional capital like Tamale-Bolgatanga, and Wa to the district capital like Tumu with the potential for economic activities, the countries that are now sad. When Nkrumah was President in the 1960s, Bolgatanga had a Meat factory that canned meat called Volta Corned Beef. Pwalugu has a Tomato Canning Factory.
Speaking to some of the youths in the two regions, they were disappointed that they felt separated from Ghana. For them, government after government has put them behind. Indeed, in the news of February 9, 2023, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ghana threatened to picket in front of the seat of government with some youths from Bawku, if the government does not show interest in them. However, he also admitted that the numerous internecine and ethnic conflicts in the north did not help development. The large amount of troops and resources pumped into the north on a regular basis to manage the conflict may be positively invested in development.
Without peace, there can be no development, especially in the face of scarce resources.
Coincidentally on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, Joy FM discussed the appalling condition of the Accra-Tema Motorway. This killer stretch with daily accidents/victims, despite all the lofty promises to fix it, has now become the Accra-Tema “Motor-No-Way,” far from the safe Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Expressway that was built in 1965.
By the way, why do we get offended when we are called “underdeveloped” countries, and prefer the euphemism, “developed” countries? For, he said, recognition of the problem is the first step to a solution. Perhaps a trip away from Accra like I have just made us more humble and talk less!
Leadership, leadership!
Ghanaians, WAKE UP!
Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (RTD)
Former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya
Chairman of the Board
University of Family Health
Accra
[email protected]
Source: Brig-Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd), Former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya
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