By Prince Acquah
Anomabo (C/R), Oct 09, GNA – The chiefs and people of Anomabo in the Central Region on Saturday held a colourful and culture-rich durbar to climax their Okyir Festival with a call for a discipline-oriented education system to shape behaviour and attitude for an accelerated, sustainable development.
The historic town was thrown into a frenzy of excitement over the return of the festival after a two-year hiatus induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was on the theme: “Education and discipline: Tools for development.”
Okyir, literally translates as “abomination”, is celebrated as a reminder of society’s vices including poor sanitation, teen pregnancy and stealing and to seek solutions to them.
The week-long festival is celebrated in the second week of October to honour the ancestors and spirits of nature, engender unity for progress among all citizens of Anomabo, in Ghana and throughout the world, and to re-establish social ties among families.
This year’s occasion also marked the 20th anniversary of Nana Egyir Aggrey I, the Saanahen of Anomabo Traditional Area.
Ahead of the gathering, the various chiefs, carried in beautifully decorated palanquins and adorned in rich kente with glitz ornaments to match, went on a procession and paraded on some principal streets in the town amid drumming, dancing and firing of muskets.
Kantamanto Amonoo XI, the Omanhen of Anomabo Traditional Area, in a message delivered on his behalf by Nana Baffoe IV, the Krontihen of the area, said disciplined educated citizens were what Ghana needed to develop.
He observed that there was so much focus on developing education through financial investments but with negligible attention to the attitudinal and behavioural growth of students.
Advocating for a change in the status quo, he maintained that discipline was the most valuable virtue needed for the development of Ghana since no country could attain a meaningful growth without educated and disciplined citizens.
Kantamanto Amoono, while thanking successive governments for their contributions to the development of Anomabo, expressed special appreciation to New Patriotic Party governments for majority of the developments in the fishing community.
He, however, made more appeals to the current government to expedite the completion of a raft of ongoing or abandoned projects in the town.
Of special concern to him was a cassava processing factory under government’s One District One Factory policy which he observed was completed but needed to be commissioned to employ the youth in the area.
“The construction of market and lorry park is progressing steadily. We appeal to you to speak to the contractors to quicken the process for early completion for our mothers, sisters and wives to be properly accommodated to avert any unforeseen situation,” he added.
For the Kwegyir Aggrey Senior High Technical School, the Omanhen said the ongoing construction of a dormitory, dining hall and kitchen started both under the previous and current governments had stalled and needed to be completed as soon as possible to make the living conditions of the students comfortable.
“Kwegyir Aggrey needs a school bus and we wish to appeal to the President to see to the completion of these projects and we promise to show our appreciation in 2024,’ he said.
Mr Ernest Egyir De-Graft, a management consultant and chairman for the durbar, stressed the need for the country to place more premium on ensuring discipline in society, saying every developed nation reached their feats through both education and discipline.
He opined that discipline should be an integral part of the education system as a major Key Performance Index because education without discipline would amount to nothing.
Mr Egyir further drummed home the need for the President to move the celebration of Founders’ Day from Accra to Anomabo, given the critical role the town played in the country’s political history.
He was hopeful that the move would drive tourism to the ancient town and boost its economy.
He also urged the Anomabo Traditional Council to form a redevelopment committee to strategise and draw programmes to boost the economic potential of various tourist facilities in the town.
The chairman proceeded to urge leaders on all levels to eschew selfishness and greed and stop enriching themselves at the expense of their people.
“And for the people, particularly the youth, we should know that development will not come from leaders alone; we are all involved and so it is important for us to do away with that thinking,” he stated.
For his part, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in a message delivered on his behalf by Mr Isaac Lord Ennu, the Mfantseman Municipal Chief Executive, pledged government’s continuous support for Anomabo and the entire Mfantseman Municipality.
He said Anomabo had had the greatest share of government’s support in the area with among others a five-million-dollar sea defence project, a gari processing factory and a fisheries college which was 97 percent complete.
“The Anomabo new market is under construction, and we will do everything we can to make sure that it will be completed next year,” he said.
“We can’t develop Ghana and abandon Anomabo because Anomabo holds a special place in the history of Ghana. You will get your share of the national cake, but we are pleading with you to continue to support and pray for the government to succeed,” the Vice President added.
GNA