Chiefs as Agents of Development and Oneness: Timmie Kuoru Leads the Way

The Timmie Kuoru, Kuoru Basuglo Luri Balluwie Abubakar IV a Divisional Chief under the Gwollu Paramouncy in the Sissala West District and his people on Saturday the 14th of September, 2024 invited sons and daughters of Sissala West District to witness the commissioning of a maternity ward he and his people initiated, constructed and equipped to be handed over to the Ghana Health Service.

There is also an ongoing construction of a 5-bedroom teachers' quarters when completed will provide a sleeping place for teachers to stay and teach the pupils of Timmie. This will go a long way to enhance education delivery and outcomes.

It was a remarkable feat achieved because it is rare to see a community leader rally his people around him to see to the success of a life saving facility like the one commissioned on Saturday.

Because of resource constraints as there are no minerals for our chiefs to be entitled to royalties and other benefits and poverty widely spread among the population in our part of the country, it has always proven difficult to complete a community project without soliciting funds from the well to do and the benevolent in our society.

A Ghana Statistical Service (CSS) report in 2023 indicates that 32.3 percent of the population in Sissala West live in multidimensional poverty and the average intensity of poverty is 46.1 percent. Sissala West is placed 180th out of the 261 districts in terms of the percentage of population living in multidimensional poor households.

Within the Upper West Region Sissala West is placed fourth out of 11 districts. In nine out of the 13 indicators, Sissala West had a higher deprivation than the national averages. This tells that the burden of poverty is largely borne by the Sissala West population and any poor person will find it hard to share riches for community development no matter how good the intention might be.

That is why it is important we celebrate the Timmie Kuoru and his people for putting their heads together to do this for the government. We must not wait for him to praise himself like the lizard does after falling from the highest tree.

The coming into fruition of the maternity ward will held ameliorate the pain expectant parents go through in pregnancy as antenatal and postnatal services will always be available for the people of Timmie. Infant and maternal mortality is expected to reduce significantly as community members will not have to travel long distances on bad roads to access health care.

With growing demand for infrastructure in education, health, agriculture, security among others, self initiated projects like this tend to relieve the pressure on government in providing infrastructure for communities. Aside relieving pressure on government, the people's welfare is been catered for immediately without having to long wait for government to provide facilities which may never come in a life time.

The commissioning also offered an opportunity for duty bearers to account and also tell what they will be doing for the community going forward. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Sissala West, Hon Mohammed Adams Sukparu has assured to provide a delivery bed and also construct a mechanized borehole to serve the maternity ward. The MP also promised to fix the Timmie - Jeffisi road if he and President Mahama are voted into power.

The District Chief Executive for Sissala West, Mahamudu Forkah who was ably represented by the NPP Constituency Secretary for Sissala West was concerned about the deplorable nature of the road from Jeffisi to Timmie and promised to fix it before the election of 2024. He also made a similar promise to construct a road from Duwie through Timmie to connect the Tumu road. These he says he will do using the District Road Improvement Programme(DRIP).

This is positive news for the community as there are a whole lot of amenities inaccessible to them including good communication network, irrigation facilities, portable water, staff accommodation and so on and so forth.

Chiefs play a critical role in our quest for development and tranquility. The Timmie Kuoru has taken a giant leap to the realization of this by ensuring that our health is enhanced first. We must encourage him to do more while calling on others to take up initiaves aimed at banishing poverty in their communities.

   Comments0