Journalists Challenged To Deal With Development Issues In The Three Northern Separately

Reverend Eastwood Anaba, the President of Eastwood Anaba Ministries (EAM), has called on journalists in the Upper East Region to facilitate the division of the Northern, Upper East and the Upper West Regions as separate Regions that require different developmental approaches.

He said expressions that had been coined and used by the media so often had become a reality, such as 'the three Regions of the North, the Northern territory, the Upper Regions and the Northern Regions' does not bring out the distinctions in the three regions.

Rev Anaba who defined journalism as 'a process of growth, advancement and prosperity,' said 'the laziness of not seeing, saying, and doing things exactly as they ought to be seen, said and done is one of the causes of underdevelopment of the Northern Region, the Upper East Region and the Upper West Region.'

Reverend Anaba made the call at a National Media Festival at the instance of The Press Foundation (TPF) held in Bolgatanga on the theme, 'Developing Northern Ghana; the role of the Journalist'.

The programme attracted journalists within and outside the Region including Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Mr Mannaseh Azure Awuni, Mr Listowell Yesu Bukarson, Municipal and District Chief Executives, opinion leaders and some heads of departments in the Region amidst heavy security presence.

Reverend Anaba, who is also the Founder of the Fountain Gate Chapel, said 'as long as we continue to look at these three regions together and not taking the pain to separate them for the purpose of developing them separately, we are going to be in trouble.'

He called on the various regions to depend on their natural resources, and not expect to benefit from natural resources of other regions, and further suggested that the rocks at Bongo could be used for granite which would benefit the Region instead of using them as defecation sites.

Mr Mannaseh Azure Awuni, an Investigative Journalist with the Multimedia Group of Companies, said with the resources in Africa, Africans ought not be poor and must not accept that poverty tag 'and wait for manna to fall from heaven'.

He implored the media not to only project the negatives, but to project positive investments and cited the Fountain Gate Chapel International School and the Akayet Hotel as examples of good investments that could promote the Region.

Mr Awuni urged politicians and those in political authority to support courses and initiatives that would promote investments in the Region, and admonished the youth not to allow their circumstances to define them.

'When we talk about greatness, each one of us can be great, you do not need to be rich to be great,' he said.

Mr Rockson Ayine Bukari, the Upper East Regional Minister, who was the special guest, encouraged media practitioners to use their platforms to promote the values of respect, humility, honesty and diligence. 'In the past, the northerner was differentiated by these values which made us the envy of the country and beyond'.

He assured the media of his support for their work in line with government's position adding that 'our government is known for having supervised the expansion of the media front through the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law among others'.

The programme was chaired by the Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Area, Tong-Rana, Kugbilsong Nalebegtang.