Alhaji Limuna Mohammed -Muniru , Upper East Regional Minister has stated that the current economic challenges confronting the country were temporal.
The Minister made the statement during the celebration of this year’s Danjuar festival at Kpikpira in the Garu-Tempane District.
The festival is celebrated annually by Bimobas; a minority settler group in the district.
Whilst appealing to Ghanaians to exercise restraint for government to address the issues, he blamed the current economic challenges partly to the global economic down turn and the attainment of the middle income status by the country.
“It should be noted that by turning into a middle income economy, most of the donor inflows that hitherto formed a chunk of our national budget were gradually fading off. What we need to know therefore is that it is through our toil that is the taxes we pay that have to constitute the main source of our development”
He said Government was vigorously pursuing pragmatic measures to lay a very strong foundation for local enterprises to grow, and cited for instance, the expansion of the rural electrification project which is to boost local industries as one of the interventions.
The Minister impressed upon Ghanaians to shelve all divisive tendencies by avoiding political bickering, ethnicity and religious rancour, and rather put the nation first, in order to build a strong united and better Ghana.
Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru commended the chiefs and people in the area for cohabiting peaceful, and impressed on other ethnic groups in the region to emulate the Chiefs and people of Bimoba Traditional areas.
He expressed regret that improvement in technology had caused many cultural values to erode and proposed constant organisation of festivals by various ethnic groups as measure to drum home the importance of traditional African values which were cardinal to the development of the nation.
The Chief of Biomoba, Naba Danzuur the Second, called on citizens of the area to be financially disciplined to enable them cope with the current economy difficulties in the country, and further entreated the youth in the area to avoid casual sex to prevent contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
He appealed to the Bawku Naba Abugrago Azoka the Second, to elevate the Bimoba Traditional area from Sub Divisional to Divisional status, stressing that the area has all it takes to be elevated to the divisional status.
The chief commended government for bringing development projects to the area, and appealed for more projects to help improve upon the livelihoods of the people.
The occasion which had as its theme “The use of Traditional Festivals as a Weapon of Peace, Unity, Stability, Development and Cultural Sustainability “attracted people from all walks of life including state functionaries.