He urged the people to also see peace as one of the important tools of development, stressing that without peace there would be no continuity and they could not plan for the future.

The Vice President said this in Tumu during the celebration of the “Paari Gbielle” Festival of the chiefs and people of the Tumu Traditional Area in the Sissala East Municipality of the Upper West Region. “As we look forward to brighter days ahead, it is my hope that this government can count on the support of the chiefs and the entire Sissala people to prosecute its agenda of transforming the Ghanaian economy for a happy stable and prosperous Ghana”, he pleaded.

Dr. Bawumia said government could not achieve its vision of building a prosperous country if they could not maintain peace in their communities, stressing that conflicts destroyed lives and property and inflicted poverty among a people. As you celebrate this year’s festival under the theme: “Paari Gbielle festival; a vehicle for fostering good neighbourliness to propel the socio-economic development of the area”, government wished to call on all to let peace building be a part of the festival and their living together, he said.

He appealed to elders in the area to teach the youth through songs, dance and through the display of symbolic culture indicating that it was only with peace that they could build a prosperous nation for themselves through the building of stronger families and communities for development. Dr. Bawumia also expressed worry that the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone was under the threat of losing its natural vegetation through illegal lumbering and indiscriminate bush burning.

He said the attention of government had been drawn to the activities of timber merchants that were cutting rosewood for export, adding that government was very much determined to protect the environment, the forest and the river bodies from excessive exploitation and degradation. “Government will take up this matter with the Forestry Commission for redress in order to stop the rapid degradation of the environment”, he assured.

Dr. Bawumia noted that government was very much concerned about the challenging nature of trunk roads as well as feeder roads in the area and assured the people that the road network would receive the attention it deserved. In the area of infrastructure in particular, the Vice President disclosed that government was about to implement the largest infrastructure project in the history of the country over the next three years.

“We are going to ensure that a lot of infrastructure in the areas of roads, electricity, fishing harbours among others are put in place over the next three years across the country”, he said and hinted that one of the roads that was dear to the heart of the President and himself was the 150km Tumu-Han-Lawra road.