Stay away from partisanship, tribalism — Oti Bless

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkwanta-North in the Volta Region, Mr John Oti Bless, has urged residents of the area to stay away from partisanship and tribalism since such tendencies impeded development.

He also called on the chiefs in the area to bury their differences and unite towards fighting for the common good of the district.

"We cannot develop as a people if we continue to allow partisanship, tribalism, chieftaincy and negative attitudes to tear us apart. The common enemies we should be fighting are poverty, illiteracy, teenage pregnancy, and underdevelopment because such issues do not discriminate as to who is a National Democratic Congress (NDC) or New Patriotic Party (NPP) member," he stressed.

Festival

He made those observations while addressing thousands of people who gathered at the Nkwanta-North District to celebrate Linujil (Yam Festival) last Saturday.

The celebration brought together Konkombas from all parts of the country, as well as parts of the Republic of Togo.

The festival, which was marked by a rich display of the Konkomba culture, was held on the theme; "Planting for Food and Jobs - the Role of the Konkomba Farmer in Promoting Socio-economic Development."

Present at the festival were political figures such as the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Mr Maxwell Blagodzi, former Deputy Volta Regional Minister in the erstwhile NPP government, Mr Joseph Kwaku Nayan, and the District Chief Executive of Nkwanta-North, Mr Jackson Jakayi.

Fulfil promises

Mr Oti Bless stressed the need for all stakeholders and opinion leaders to rise above partisan considerations and support initiatives that would open the district to development.

He called on the NPP government to fulfil the promises it made to the people, including yam farmers.

"I want to emphasise that our yam farmers are asking the government to support them the same way cocoa farmers are supported.”

"Our yam farmers deserve to reap the benefits of their labour so the government needs to extend its agriculture policies to them as well," he said.

Peace

For his part, the President of the Konkomba Youth Association (KOYA), Mr Charles Nyoja, called on all Konkombas to use the festival as a turning point to redirect their efforts towards promoting peace in the interest of national development.

He used the platform to dispel the bad publicity about Konkombas, especially those which linked them to conflicts in parts of the country.

"I want to use this platform to state that Konkombas are hardworking people and not trouble makers as has always been reported anytime there are issues.”