INEWSGHANA.COM - THEY ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT

Most often a time, most Ghanaians in the urban areas see Ghana to be very beautiful with little or no worries or troubles and by kind courtesy of today’s journalists, the focus is only based on politics and almost nothing else.

Everything that occurs in this country is related to politics. The constant fire outbreaks that were recurring during the early parts of 2013 were even pertained to politics likewise the Melcom incident. Recently, as Ghana marked its 57^th anniversary, the tremendous oblivious rainfall that poured out, was even associated with politics. Overlooking the fact that there are other issues of this noble country which are equally or more important than what is on board now.

It is very sad to know that there are places in 21^st Century Ghana that have no electricity, portable water or even heard the word Accra before. They have no idea of how Accra even looks like.

With the help of the Girls Making Media (G.M.M) beneficiaries’ tour by Plan Ghana, I have had the privilege to visit a neighbouring village in Asesewa in the Upper Manya Krobo District of Ghana known as Akohia Siase and trust me, they know little about modernization. The most fascinating thing that caught my attention was the fact that there were political power seekers’ posters there. Every adult there knows at least one presidential or parliamentary candidate which implies that voting takes place there too.

So the question is, what exactly are these political leaders doing for this town? Are they just giving them sugar coated words, building castles in the air, just to win their votes and neglect them afterwards?

This town has a poor road network and there is just one Health facility which is the Government Hospital as well as a Senior High School known as the Asesewa Senior High School (of which i am a product) that serves the whole Upper Manya Krobo District. The hospital and Senior High School are even situated in the capital of the district, Asesewa.

When there is a downpour of rain, no matter how minute it may be, walking becomes the only means of transportation because of the rickety road that links Akohia Siase to the Asesewa township. It may surprise you to know that because of the poor road network, commercial vehicles go there only on Wednesdays and Fridays. (Fridays are the market days of Asesewa).

The Minister for Roads and Highways, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani, on the 4^th of July, 2013 in the Ghanaian Times Newspaper, assured the general public of the government’s commitment to rehabilitate roads in the country and promote economic activities especially in the food growing areas and I think that Akohia Siase and other related towns and villages in the Upper Manya Krobo District, must not be left out because they contribute a significant figure of the food growing areas in the country which shouldn't be looked down upon.

Some time ago, residents of Ashaiman and Asamankese had to embark on demonstrations in order to protest against the poor state of their roads which made the President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, to direct the Ministry of Finance and Roads to pay the certificates of contractors in order to increase the pace of work on the roads.

Do we always have to wait for demonstrations and strikes before actions take place?

If we take actions only after peaceful demonstrations and strikes then next time it’s going to get out of hands because as humans as we are, we are definitely going to get fed up one day with demonstrations and will have to move to the next level or the alternative which may be WAR!

Of course, we know all cannot be done at once considering the resources we have but at least it’s high time Members of Parliament stood their grounds to fight for their constituencies and Districts and practice Sustainable Development.

Akohia Siase need electricity to know what is going on in and around their world and the world at large. They need lights and portable drinking water.

Some of the teachers serving the only basic school made it known to us that when the students come to school, they can easily take a French leave in order to assist their parents in their farms because farming is their main occupation, thus, their main source of income.

A number of the students are not just interested in “book knowledge” but rather, are engrossed with agriculture and vocation or technical stuff. Therefore, formal education alone cannot help it all. Indeed the devil finds work for the idle man so, all things being equal, when these teenagers find nothing that interests them to do, they easily turn to their only source of recreation – SEX.

Teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS are on the increase there, leading to school drop outs among other social vices. The Manya Krobo District has been noted to be among the highest prevalent areas in the country where HIV/AIDS have been recorded.

The government is always sounding alarms on teenage pregnancy, child labour and spends huge sums of money on curbing and reducing HIV/AIDS yet the problems and causes are not being attacked from its grass roots.

EDUCATION is NOT enough! There should be more to it than that. Such people, most of the time, see sex as their main source of recreation and thereby end up in teenage pregnancy and dropping out of schools. So, educating them on just teenage pregnancy without making provision of a substitute of the sex is not enough. After, or before education, a solution or an alternative recreational activity or facility must be provided. This is also not to dispute the fact that some of them are heart hardened and that no matter what is done, they will still indulge in such acts, but at least, majority of the problem would have been tackled.