Anlos celebrate
Hogbetsotso Festival
Anloga (Volta Region)
04 November 2002- Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development, has
urged Kingmakers to recognise the importance of chiefs to community development
and facilitate their unimpeded installation, where required.
He was addressing a
durbar of Chiefs and people of Anloga to climax the celebration of this year's
Hogbetsotso Festival under the theme: "Unification and Reconciliation of the
Anlo State."
Bartels, who
represented President John Agyekum Kufuor said the stalemate in the
installation of a new Awomefia, who, he said, was rated as one of the top ten
chiefs in the country, has created a serious vacuum in the Anlo State, which needed
to be filled quickly.
He said the theme
chosen for the celebration was in accord with the national reconciliation
initiative to review the country's past, make amends and end the estrangement
of the citizenry who suffered from past mistakes.
It is in the same
spirit that the Anlos should work towards overcoming their differences and
allow for the installation of a new Awomefia, Bartels implored. He described
the Anlos as people who cherished freedom and democracy for which they were
prepared to lay down their lives.
Bartels assured them
that the government was looking for funds for the resettlement of the people of
Vodza, Kedzi and Adzido as part of the Keta Sea defence project because the
original loan of 84 million United States dollars, for the project did not
include resettlement.
He was optimistic that
the completion of the project would restore the former glory of the Anlo State.
Bartels asked the Ministries of Works and Housing, Private Sector evelopment,
Tourism and Food and Agriculture to explore the restoration of economic
potentials for salt production, fishing, vegetable processing, and tourism
infrastructure development after the project was completed.
Major Courage
Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Food and Agriculture urged the Anlos to protect
their culture and explore and develop its tourism potentials. Kofi Dzamesi, Deputy Volta Regional Minister
said, chieftaincy, land, ethnic and religious disputes are having a heavy toll
on the country's development and called for a change.
Togbui Awusu 11,
Awadada of Anlo said the quarrels over the selection of a new Awomefia
continued to destabilise the traditional governance of the Anlos. He thanked
the government for the progress made in the sea defence project. Among those
present at the celebration were Victor Gbeho, Member of Parliament for Anlo and
Oba Yaa Afrifa, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
GRi…/
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