Wa Municipal holds its first SOCO cluster level cultural display at Jonga

As part of the implementation of the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project (SOCO) in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region, a cluster-level cultural display has come off at Jonga in Wa Municipal.

With a theme dubbed: "Fostering Peaceful Co-existence Through Youth Engagement," the occasion which took place on Friday, January 26, at the Jonga cluster brought together residents of the various communities including chiefs, elders, opinion leaders, the youth, women, children, and all minority groups.

The cluster-level cultural display engagement which is expected to span between January 26-28, saw the exciting colourful spectacle of various cultural displays from various communities.

Addressing the gathering, the Wa Municipal Chief Executive, Issahaku Tahiru Moomin, said: "Often when people idle around without having anything to do, the likelihood of them falling prey to the influence of bad people is very high. So it's the reason we must do everything to get people engaged to avoid that. If you look at our neighboring countries, there are cases of gun attacks now and then. For instance, if you happen to be in Burkina Faso and you aren't lucky, you can't come back here safely".

"There are now people in this world whose modus operandi is to
take advantage of people's idleness and vulnerability to woo them into their fold to foment trouble and cause instability wherever they find themselves. Since you might have already been frustrated due to some developmental challenges you have in your area, they'd come to try to convince you to yield to their demands claiming to want to help you out of your quagmires that you have no answers for, only for that to lead you to worse scenarios of disputes and conflicts with your community (s) that'll break the stability you were enjoying".

"As a result of this, the government is poised to prevent such occurrences. So the government has secured funding to improve the livelihoods of the people while enhancing their basic social amenities. This is to ensure cohesion and peaceful coexistence of the people. So this is all what the project we have brought is all about which's known as the SOCO Project," he added.

He noted that the Wa Municipality has been divided into seven clusters of communities for the execution of the SOCO project with each cluster consisting of about 8-9 communities.

"The SOCO Project in Wa Municipal, Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project under the youth component sub-component which is 1.3 of the SOCO Project, which's youth engagement and social cohesion, we're to engage about 5 clusters in the Wa Municipality.

"So today, we have gone to Jonga cluster where we're engaging the youth through cultural display. We're inviting all diverse community members, the Fulani people, we have the youth, women, those living with disabilities (and so on)," Mr. Wuurah Felix, the Wa Municipal Director of the National Youth Authority said.

According to him, the objective of the project is to create social cohesion and peaceful coexistence among the people in the community.

Explaining further, he stated: "So that's the major objective of the sub-component of the 1.3 project. So we have started this engagement through the cultural displays, we also have sports-based (activities), drama-based (activities), and other youth activities that'll attract many people coming together in the community to establish social cohesion among the people."

He explained that the aim of the project is designed to make sure that young people are engaged to disabuse their minds from harbouring the thoughts of falling prey to the activities of radical and terrorist elements, particularly when Ghana is closed to countries experiencing such attacks.

He furthered that the team would, on Saturday, January 27, also take the cultural displays to other clusters such as Chansa, Kpongu, and Zingu in the municipality.

He also noted that the 1.3 component is also further broken into three thematic areas which are Youth Mobilization and Engagement, Youth Referral Services which is the skill training, Youth Infrastructural Investment (rehabilitating football parks, ICT centres, community centre), and things that the youth can come together to do.

Elaborating further, he indicated there is also another project known under the 1.3 component in the second phase known as LED; Local Economic Development, which he said was yet to commence.

"This one seeks to develop sub-skill and employable skills among the youth like soap making, satellite dish installation, and other handy work training," he added.

Implemented by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development (MLGDRD), with a credit facility from the Word Bank, the SOCO Project is a regionally coordinated solution that effectively responds to local needs.

Its main objective is to contribute to the prevention of conflict spillover from the Sahelian Region.