By Osman mustapha
A foreign land can never be as good as one?s own homeland and if you must compromise anything at all in life, it should at least not be your land of birth. For anybody to stand tall and speak with a loud voice then you should know and uphold and even cherish the values of the land of your birth; applaud and praise the people that bring development to your land and encourage the up growing ones to emulate the good deeds of both the past and present.
It isgood if we could alsoadopt the culture of praising our leaders either in physical terms or give regular talks about their little contributions that brought our land to where it is today.We rather fall short in this direction as Sissalas. We have ignored a lot of things which inversely affect our agitations for fast development in our land today.
Tracing the history of our past leaders, the Sissala man was not doing bad in terms developing our land. May be they could have done better. May be we all have failed in our respective duties as Sissalas. Why? Because there are both historical events and land marks we could have used to showcase our past leaders and also track the performance our today?s leaders per their contributions to the Sissala land. Rather we chastise all our leaders as if individually or collectively they never did anything good for the land.
We have Egala KG, Primary and JHS in respect of Moro Egala of Pieng, a political legend of our land. These schools could have been projected high enough to reflect the ambition of Moro Egala?sto promote education in the land. It is possible we could have furnished these schools with quality teachers, more educational facilities and any motivative toolto attract public attention and increase its academic performance. What do we see instead? A refuge dam for less privilege children to attend school. Upon all the efforts put up by the teachers of these schools, the children performance will never reflect that. Are we trying to say Moro Egala was a failure in terms of education or is it that we have notattached any seriousness to preserving his good name? I reserve my comments???..
We also have the Cotton Ginning Machine (Cotton Gineri) for Ghana Cotton Company Ltd, now OLAM Ghana which was established by Dr. Hillah Liman from Gwollu in his days as the president of the third republic of Ghana. And if for nothing at all we could have establishedother structures to keep Dr. Hillah Limann?s name still attach to the company. I wonder how many Sissalas are even aware that it was the efforts of Dr. Hillah Limann that brought ?Cotton Gineri? to Tumu. Up to date my brothers and sisters, can we point out one physically existing project in the whole of the Sissala land that GCCL or OLAM Ghana has done apart from its physical existence in Sissala land to honour Dr. Hillah Limann? Could we not have created other links to keep Dr. Hillah Limann?s name high in respect of this great asset? While some people are politically gambling with Dr. Hillah Limann?s name, what are we also doing to derive something for the benefits of the Sissala land? Bring your comments please???..
Not long before now, we had Tumu and the thenSissala District for that matter receiving the first electricity from Akosombo in the whole of Upper West through controversial means per the efforts of Alhaji Amidu Sulemana. Since then, electricity is secretly and publicly sneaking into many communities of our dear land yet Alhaji Amidu Sulemana is not honoured or remembered in any way for this vital contribution. Road network. As if it is that easy. His contribution since 2000 in Tumu is yet to receive a helping hand. Again I doubt if there is anything set aside as a symbol in memory of this man. Quite frustrating and very worrying, some of us rather pour insults on him for no reason. What a petty! Any way let the story continue?????..
Just yesterday, Moses DaniBaah (from Bujan) was able to negotiate for Plan Ghana, an international NGO to work in the then Sissala District. The benefits of Plan Ghana to the Sissala land are spread out everywhere yet nothing in memory of Moses DaniBaah for his efforts. Also, Moses DaniBaah in his capacity as MP for Sissala District (2001 to 2008) negotiated for over sixty teachers get motor bikes on loan. This was a historical event in the whole of Upper West and even beyond. Some other MPs emulated this gesture and it?s still working for themwhiles we the pioneers failed subsequently. Amused as I am, I would be glad to see one thing name in memory of Moses DaniBaah for his contributions to the Sissala land. What do you have to say? ????????
The story can continue on and on with even more provoking thoughts. I presume a solution will come to our aid one day. However, we must work hard for it only if we need it that agent. What is your tick on that?
Robert BakaWavei is another patriotic individual that have spend all his life working for the welfare of Sissalas. He has worked in different capacities and his achievements arecountless and even challenging. I am sometimes tempted to believe that the vision of Robert BakaWavei for our development as Sissalas is yet to be seen in any other leader. He has his own challenges any way. But he would never allow what belongs to the Sissala land to go elsewhere whiles he has the capacity to challenge it. Talk about the water pumping machine adjacent the District Police Headquarters, Tumu. Also remember the Ghana TelecomPole inside Tumu Post Office yard that used to supply us with Gtv transmission even without the aid of any antennae. The rampant reduction in smuggling and the culture of hardworking are some of his hallmarks. Could we not have remembered Robert BakaWavei for one thing that will motivate others in this direction? What else can say? ???????
We have many other individuals that have contributed greatly to the development of our land that are not honoured to best of my knowledge. Can we start something different and what could that be? ???
It is not bad to criticize our leaders (both past and present) on genuine grounds. But we could also show in appreciation the little contribution each of them did in developing our land to this extend. I think doing that will motivate other leaders coming up to work harder to have their names remembered for their achievements.
Chastising our leaders may rather inform them that we don?t appreciate their little contributions andso whatever they would do to amass wealth at our expense and go they will do it. While we regret now and then, we will also continue to tell the same story if we have to under look every good contribution of our leaders and chastise them over little errors.
I am inviting all and sundry to join hands with ideas that will bring our leaders home so that we can tap our share of the national cake from them before it will be too late for us. Wake up brothers and sisters we need to change certain things and that could be now.
Seidu Jaadi
