- New Togbega Gabusu V11 asserts as he ascends Throne & assumes Leadership of Gbi State
The Gbi State, the traditional identity for the chiefs and people of Hohoe and its environs, became vacant and leaderless following the passing of Togbega Gabasu V1 – the immediate spiritual leader, custodian, owner and overlord of the Gbi State – to the ancestral village, which unfortunate event demanded tact; with elaborate customary rules followed by the necessary rites and rituals that ensured Togbe’s successful passage on December 12th, 2021.
Succession
Custom and tradition demands that laid-down necessary customary practices, procedures and processes are followed to fill the vacuum; and as a fallout Gbi State kingmakers and elders sprang into action and the lot fell on Mr. Seth Kudzo Agbesinyale, an Investment Consultant (IC) and Senior Investment (SIO) with the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GISDC), Accra. He was accordingly nominated and taken through the necessary customary and traditional rites and rituals including confinement among others.
Outdooring
After all the necessary traditional rites, rituals and related processes and protocols, the kingmakers, elders and people of the Gbi State on June 11th organised a colourful, rich grand durbar to formally outdoor Togbega Gabusu V11 as the new Overlord, paramount Chief and President of the Gbi State at Hohoe, the traditional Capital of the Gbi State which also doubles as the administrative capital of the Hohoe Municipality.
The rich and colourful outdooring durbar was witnessed and graced by important personalities including Mr. Noble Awume, Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive (MCE); sub-chiefs and queen-mothers of the Gbi State and other traditional leaders from other paramountcies, the clergy, Hohoe indigenes home and abroad and others.
The new Overlord received homage from his sub-chiefs and queen-mothers, subjects, friends, visitors and other well-wishers.
Appeal
Togbega Gabusu V11 in his speech thanked the kingmakers for the confidence reposed in him; he called on his subjects to unite and join forces with him to elevate Gbi to higher heights from where their ancestors left off.
Greater heights
Togbega Gabusu V11, the new Overlord of Gbi State, in a brief inclusive interview with the Business and Financial Times tourism desk shortly after his impressive enstoolment – which was marked with some outstanding, rich and beautiful cultural practices including drumming , dancing and fanfare – observed his predecessor had left a huge and peerless legacy as leader of the Gbi State, and made a passionate appeal to his subjects to unite their energies and join forces with him to make the Gbi State greater than what their ancestors and predecessors bequeathed them. And also gave firm assurance to provide the crucially needed, honest, open, transparent and modern leadership to advance the Gbi State’s cause.
…Pays Courtesy Call on Lands Minister
TOGBEGA Gabusu V11, the President of Gbi Traditional Area and new Overlord of the Gbi State in a related development has quickly adjusted and settled in after his selection, installation and outdooring, and plunged into action without ceremony and delay with a courtesy call on the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, (ML&NR) Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor and the ministry, his immediate employers, as his first official formal public engagement after his installation and outdooring as a traditional leader and stakeholder.
Bono East uses Tourism as Strategic Catalyst – Adu Gyan
For an Accelerated Socio-Economic Transformation & Model Tourism Hub, BERCC rallies GTA, FC, Nananom & Other Strategic Stakeholders to use the multi-million dollar industry as roadmap for accelerated socio-economic transformation to transform the area into an international model tourism hub & destination.
THE Bono East Region Coordinating Council (BERCC), one of the new political administrative regions, has reposed unalloyed confidence in tourism development as its best bet and strategic blueprint for the region’s rapid and accelerated socio-economic transformation.
Sources close to Mr. Kwasi Adu Gyan, the Bono East Regional Minister who doubled as the head of Bono East Regional Co-coordinating Council at Techiman, the regional capital, told Business and Financial Times tourism desk scouts yesterday that the Regional Minister has given an express order to all the eleven (11) Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the region to immediately take inventory of their resources and bring their district-wide tourism development blueprint to the BERCC for incorporation and consolidation with the region’s overall socio-economic transformation agenda.m
Cash-Cow Destination
Information available from the Bono East Regional Office (BERO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), at Techiman, to the Business and Financial Times tourism desk revealed the region has great tourism potential , including breathtaking eco-tourism resources, great cultural heritage, natural scenic attractions among others – but all remain largely undocumented, undeveloped and inaccessible.
Regional Director
The Bono East Regional Director-Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr. Joseph Appiagyei, is very confident Bono East will soon see an unprecedented and impressive turn-around and eventually transform an imminent and outstanding international model destination/tourism hub and Ghana’s irresistible tourism destination address and an indispensable national tourism cash-cow.
“Speaking from where I sit as a regional tourism development and growth promoter, industry regulator, industry analyst as well as potential development investors’ adviser and counsellor, I can confidently say Bono East is bound for tourism greatness and fame, given the degree of high premium urgency that the Regional Minister and Bono East Regional Co-coordinating Council have put in and attached to the region’s tourism development. This gives the region the critically needed best-foot-forward advantage and strategic shot in the arm for realising the infant region’s tourism development aspirations, as well as its overall rapid socio-economic transformation,” the GTA Regional Director told BFT’s tourism desk yesterday on the phone from Techiman.
Mr. Appiagyei asserts his expected turnaround in Bono East’s tourism fortunes is doable and attainable, especially with strategic and crucial political leadership, with on-the-level determination and cooperation among the frontline key actors and stakeholders consisting of the Regional Minister, BERCC and the Authority.
The GTA boss said though the region currently lags behind on national tourism traffic distribution as a result of undeveloped and inaccessible attractions, the Kintampo Waterfalls and Fuller Waterfalls – both in the Kintampo North Municipality (KNMA) – and also Buaben-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in the Nkoranza North Municipality (NNMA) are the region’s topmost three cash-cow destinations.
The Writer is Tourism, Brands & Branding, Communication & Marketing Consultant, Practitioner, Analyst, Advocate and Activist
