VALENTINE SPIRIT DYING SLOWING IN TAMALE

THE hype of Valentine celebrations in the Tamale metropolis is at its lowest point this year.

Tamale Central Business District

Many people seem to be unaware that Tuesday, February 14, is St Valentine’s Day, and not much has been heard so far in terms of events to mark the day.

“Nobody is talking about Valentine. It is like people have lost interest in it. So if not because you mentioned it, it would have come to pass without I knowing,” Esther Awudu, a Public Relations personnel at the Tamale Teaching Hospital told the Daily Graphic.

Mr Issah Murtala, a presenter on Radio Savannah in Tamale, said he had not come across any announcements on Valentine events, adding that he was not surprised about this development.

St. Valentine (Wikipedia)

“I think that over the years, there have been criticisms that the youth use Valentine celebrations to engage in acts of promiscuity, so this condemnation has dumped the Valentine spirit,” he said, adding that he had even posted a message on his Facebook wall about Valentine, but people were not commenting on it as expected.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Kudus, a dealer in gift cards at the Central Business District, said only two girls had so far come to buy Valentine cards from his shop.

“This year, we brought only a few Valentine cards to sell because last year, sales were poor and we run into losses,” he noted.

TAMALE GOES DEAD QUITE - As Black Stars fail to reach AFCON finals

THE streets of Tamale became dead quite this evening as the failure of the Black Stars to make it to the finals of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations left a bitter pill in the mouths of many Ghanaians in the area.

An aura of despair cast its shadow over the sprawling city as many of the residents could not hide their disappointment.“Boss, it’s bad. I am totally speechless,” Abdul-Wahab Jebreel, a journalist said, adding that this is probably the last time he is going to invest his heart in the Black Stars.

“Never again would I watch Ghana’s match because they always disappoint us at the last minute,” Jebreel stated.

For Mr Mohammed Umar, an accountant at the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in Tamale, the defeat was too painful to accept.

“I still do not believe it. We were so close to the final and all of a sudden, pew. A team of no match to our team has kicked us out. How can we accept this,” he lamented.

Indeed, many Ghanaians had harboured high expectations that the Black Stars would qualify to the finale of the 2012 AFCON and lift the cup once again.

All of a sudden, they had to accept the reality that the dream of qualifying to the final and possibly lifting the cup had suddenly evaporated.

What probably caused more anguish to some of these football loving Ghanaians was the repeated failure of Asamoah Gyan to give Ghana victory at the times it matter most.

“Why is it that every time, it is he (Gyan) who fails us? Aaa...ba,” Aisha Issah, the owner of Ayi’s Special Dishes at the Tamale Central Business district complained.

In her opinion, this should be the last tournament of Asamoah Gyan and the other senior places.

“Next time, the coach should send only Dede Ayew and the other young guys,” Aisha suggested, may be confirming the cliché that we have 22 million coaches in Ghana.

Ghana lost by a loan goal to Zambia and by so doing has been relegated to fight for the third or fourth place.

REHABILITATING ZUJUNG CEMETRY - A COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY

(Daily Graphic, Jan 24, 2012, page 19)

IF we were all destined to perish on the same day and time, we would not have to worry about how nice or dirty our cemeteries are, after all, making the cemetery neat would not bring any comfort to the dead.

The reality however is that we would die and be buried one after the other, so many of us would have to visit the cemetery on many occasions in our lifetime.

It therefore behoves on us to keep the cemetery in good condition so that each time we lose someone, we would not hesitate to visit the cemetery.

It is also incumbent on us to dignify the cemetery because there lay the remains of people we shared laughter, joy, pain and all manner of emotions with when they were alive.

On one morning, whiles on my way to work, I tuned to one of the local radio stations in Tamale, Zaa Radio, and heard an elderly man speaking about efforts that he and some other persons were making to build a fence wall to protect the Zujung cemetery.

I became interested in what these volunteers were doing, because the Zujung cemetery, located off the Tamale-Kumasi road, is the most popular graveyard in Tamale.

However, the current state of this cemetery leaves much to be desired, especially with regards to sanitation. Some people leaving near to the cemetery have turned it into a toilet and dumpsite.

Structures are being raised very close to the cemetery and, hence, the boundaries of the cemetery are being narrowed gradually. There are also no guidelines to bring orderliness in the digging of graves and so graves are located haphazardly on various portions of the graveyard.

It is surprising that in spite of the poor state of this cemetery, many people, including political and community leaders, go there regularly to bury their loved ones and yet have not made any effort at putting the cemetery in good shape.

So, later in the day, I drove to the cemetery and lo and behold, I saw four people busily putting up a fence wall.

But how much work can four people do on such a big burial site, I asked the leader of the group, 72-year old Baba Kisco and he said with divine providence, he was hopeful they would do the work till finish.

Mr Kisco said in 2009, he noticed that the cemetery was being encroached upon and he was deeply worried because he thought in future, there would not be any more space for burial.

“I began to make announcements in mosques appealing for support for the construction of a fence wall to protect the cemetery. I asked for cement, sand, water, and other items,” he said.

Baba Kisco said the response was slow in coming but as the months rolled into years, and the years went by, he was able to mobilise a number of these items and therefore decided to start the project.

He said in early 2011, he and three others – Abukari Munkaila, Nanumdoo Fuseini and Tahiru Fuseini – moulded 10,000 blocks.

In November that same year, they finally decided to dig the foundation and raise the wall beginning from the Northern side of the entrance to the cemetery. Till date, if you visit the cemetery, you would find them there working feverishly.

Mr Kisco pointed out that although the four of them were physically engaged in the work, they were being supervised by the Chief Imams of Tamale Central Mosque and Afajura Mosque, Alhaji Abdul-Salam and Alhaji Seidu Abubakari Zakaria, respectively.

He said occasionally, somebody would come to join hands and later disappear, explaining that some people fear to work at the cemetery.

Baba Kisco said since the work begun, the support has not been coming consistently.

“Once in a while, somebody would bring us some bags of cement or trips of sand,” he said, adding that he owed so much gratitude to some food vendors in town who have continued to provide them food during the work.

Mr Kisco said he was very optimistic that the work would be executed till finish if they get adequate cement, iron rods, river sand, aggregate, tanks, water, wheel barrow, shovels, pick axe and other construction materials.

I asked the four volunteers if the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TaMA) had offered them any form of support and they indicated that the assembly provided part of the construction materials, although the MCE, Alhaji Haruna Friday had not yet visited the project site.

As the conversation with the four people progressed, a group of people brought the remains of a loved one to bury and we joined them to bid farewell to the deceased.

When we returned to the project site, the four people made me understand that the construction of the fence wall was not the only thing they were doing to keep the cemetery in good shape.

“Each year, we come together to weed the grass in the cemetery. We have been doing this since 1997,” Baba Kisco said, adding that the four of them have been doing community service for a long time.

In fact, the four of them were the brains and hands behind the rehabilitation of sanitary facilities at the morgue of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH).

Meanwhile, some casual labourers engaged by the TaMA to undertake burial activities at the cemetery told this paper that they were witnesses to the good work being done by the four volunteers.

One of them, Mr Abdul-Kahad said the construction of the fence wall would not only stop encroachment, but also keep away unscrupulous persons who visit the cemetery to attend to nature’s call and to do illicit activities, like ‘juju’.

When the Daily Graphic spoke to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of TaMA, Mr Issah Musah, he said the assembly had not shirked its responsibility towards keeping the cemetery in good shape.

“The construction of a fence wall had always been on the drawing board of the assembly, until an individual by name Yaho Yaho galvanised support to commence the project,” the stated.

He said the assembly was collaborating with Yaho Yaho to construct the fence wall.

The reality however remains that when you go to the project site, it is not a contractor or assembly officials who are there constructing or supervising the work. It is Baba Kisco and his team.

It is therefore high time that the assembly and other corporate institutions, politicians, chiefs and other inhabitants contribute their quota towards making the Zujung cemetery a decent place.

For those who have already done so, May Allah bless them abundantly.

LOUISVILLE COMMUNITY DONATES MEDICAL EQUIPMENT TO TTH

(Daily Graphic, Jan 24, 2012, page 19)

THE Chief Executive Officer of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Dr Ken Sagoe (second left) receiving medical equipment from the President of Sister-Cities of Tamale, Mr Mohammed Harun (blue smock).

The equipment included two ultrasound machines, beds, mattresses, anaesthetic equipment, theatre gear, kidney dialyses machines, laboratory equipments and other consumables.

The items were provided by the Louisville community in the United States (US) through the Sister-Cities of Tamale, a body that co-ordinates the affairs between Tamale and its sister cities.

Dr Sagoe said the donation had come at the right time, since the hospital was undergoing refurbishment.

“We need these equipment to facilitate quality healthcare delivery and teaching,” he stated, adding that sections such as surgery, orthopaedics and the wards would benefit a lot from these equipment.

TUUNAYILI NURSERY REHABILITATED

 (Daily Graphic, Jan 18, 2012, page 19)

Pupils in one of the delapidated pavilions

THREE dilapidated pavilions that were being used by pupils of the Tuunayili MA Nursery School in Tamale have been rehabilitated and furnished.

Markaz Al-Bishara (MAB), a non-governmental organisation, converted the pavilions into full classroom blocks and furnished the classrooms with a total of 60 dual desks in addition to a play ground that was constructed earlier.

The pavilions, which were constructed for the school some years back by another NGO, School for Life, had been falling to pieces for some time now and during the raining season, water seeps from the floor.

Also, because the facility had open doors and windows, some unscrupulous persons used the place as a toilet and stole the dual desks that had been provided, thereby compelling the pupils to use the floor.

The M.A.B. therefore decided to come to the aid of the school through its Gumani Child Care and Family Helper Programme (GCCFHP), with funding from the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC).

The Sponsorship Officer for the M.A.B., Mr Samuel Abdul-Rahaman told the Daily Graphic in an interview that his organisation had spent over GH¢15,000 for the rehabilitation works.

“We were not pleased about the state of the nursery block and the suffering of the pupils who were using the facility,” he stated.

Pupils in the newly-renovated classroom block

Mr Abdul-Rahaman noted that the M.A.B. had made early childhood development a priority area because research had shown that a good foundation is a prerequisite for success when climbing the education ladder.

He said in recent times, a lot of students have failed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), and this has been blamed on the poor state of early childhood education.

“It is our hope that within the next two years we should be able to provide a new block for the nursery,” he added.

The Assistant Headmaster of the Tuunayili MA Primary, Mr Abukari Alhassan and the chairman of the school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Pastor Abu Napari confirmed the support provided to the school by the M.A.B.

“They have provided us a decent structure for the nursery and kindergarten and we are very grateful to the organisation and its partners,” Mr Alhassan stated.

He lamented about the situation where some children come to destroy the school’s facilities when the school is not in session and said there was the need for the school and the PTA to bring their resources together and get the services of security personnel to safeguard the school’s properties.

The PTA chairman pledged the support of the association to the development of the school, saying that the poor state of infrastructure in the school was a source of worry to the association.