After 20 years of the Upper West Region's existence, any lessons?

All too soon the chapter on the much advertised 20th anniversary celebrations of the creation of the Upper West Region has come to a close with lots of mixed feelings, while most of the people saw it as homecoming to re-unite with their families, others saw it as a platform to map out strategies for further development.

Also, so many months of preparations, impatience, globetrotting and marathon races have all now been thrown into the dustbin of history for posterity to judge.

ACTIVITIES

The weeklong celebration was loaded with enticing, educative and indeed attractive programmes to showcase the potentials and capabilities of the people of the Upper West Region.

Among the activities were games, a symposium, radio quiz programme and inter-schools debate. Others were an investment fair and forum, health forum, homecoming meeting, cultural display, beauty pageant and a grand durbar of chiefs.

Dinner dance and non-denominational church service were also organised to round off the 20th anniversary. Apart from the above, there were group and individual efforts orchestrated to enrich the anniversary and to make it memorable.

PATRONAGE

Patronage of the 20th Anniversary programmes would continue to be one of the controversies of the occasion. While patronage at certain functions such as investment fair and forum, health forum and the beauty pageant were high, the same could not be said of the debate, symposium and quiz programmes where only students and few adult heads of department graced the occasions.

At the symposium for instance where the great majority of the people were expected to express views and contribute their quota towards the development of the Region, it was a rather disappointing event.

The investment fair and forum, health forum and dinner dance, however, drew people from and near who had a lot to see and buy and to contribute meaningfully to the development of the Region.

LESSONS LEARNED AND CRITICISMS

In order to give a good post-mortem of the celebrations lots of investigations were conducted among the people of Upper West Region. People outside the Region were also interviewed while others also volunteered their independent views on the celebrations.

First and foremost, many people thought the age 20 was nothing worthy of celebrations as it was only 25, 40, 50, 60, 75 and 100 years were the most accepted and recognizable anniversaries all over the world.

However, the 20th anniversary could serve as a springboard for the celebration of 25th anniversary. Another issue that strongly came out was the problem of publicity. Most people thought that the time frame given to the committee and publicity was not enough.

Unfortunately, however, at the time that most of the advertisements were played on the National Television, Upper West citizens could not be reached, as there was transmission problem with telephone lines constantly 'dead'.

Another thing that came out clearly was the division among the people along political lines. While some politicians viewed the celebration as politically motivated and, therefore, did not give their total support to the celebration, others were able to eschew their political affiliations to team up with their colleagues for the common goal of development.

A number of citizens of the Region had to be specially invited by Regional Coordinating Council and the planning committee before they came home to contribute.

The Regional Minister Mr Sahanun Mogtari did not hide his displeasure whenhe said during the homecoming meeting that "no landlord needs to be invited to enter his own house unless he is a stranger".

A general opinion expressed at the investment fair was that people of the Region should not wait for an anniversary before organising such fairs to showcase the potentials in the Region.

One other issue that generated lots of criticism was the dinner which was attended by the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama at the Upland Hotel at Wa, while most of the patrons complained of poor services at the occasion the Hotel Management explained that ample preparations were made for less than 100 people only to be given over 150 names at the time the programme was about to start, hence the lapses.

CONCLUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS

All in all, the 20th anniversary celebration has made an indelible mark in the history of the Region. Next time around, committees should be all inclusive, irrespective of political lineage, tribal and regional bias.

The media should also be made an integral part of the planning from the formation of committees to the implementation stages and not to be relegated to only programme coverage.