By Buertey Francis BORYOR
The youth of Bissa in the Bawku Municipal District of the Upper East Region of Ghana are threatening to boycott the 2024 elections and subsequent ones for being continually denied developmental projects.
The Bissa Youth Association’s spokesperson, Ali Ibrahim Issaka, in an interview with the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) at the Bissa Sakuma, or ‘Bissa Coming Together’ 2024 event’s maiden edition in Accra, October 5, 2024, remarked that although Bissas have in no small way contributed to the country’s economic activities, their area lacks developmental projects such as, health facilities, schools, roads and many others.
Against this backdrop he is calling for the immediate construction of the road from Gentiga through Mognore, Tampizua, Baribari, Garekoka to meet the main road at Zopeliga to improve the transportation of farm produce to the Kulungungu Market.
Additionally, he demands immediate construction of another road and a bridge that will link Kulungungu to Bador.
“Successive governments have denied the people of Bissa developmental projects for far too long. For instance, they have failed to fulfil our calls for the construction of the area’s roads which are in terrible conditions.
“The Bissa Belt and other isolated Bissa settlements such as Manga, Bugri, Werinyanga, Gareke and others shall boycott the coming elections as well as the 2032 elections if we are continuously denied development.
“Vegetable farming is incomplete without Bissas. We supply the chunk of vegetables in Ghana, especially in December through to April, from the Bissa Belt. However, the area lacks developmental projects,” he elaborated.
Also, Mr. Issaka cautioned the youth against allowing themselves to be exploited by politicians anymore. “The politicians have exploited us for a very long time now. The division they have plunged us into must be a thing of the past.
“We must learn great lessons from the experiences of teacher Amadu in 2012, Hawa Yakubu’s rejection, Karim Duburu’s neglect and insults on Alhassan Haruna in 2012 that the Bissa brand in politics has been discriminated against in Bawku,” he elaborated.
Furthermore, he urged all Bissas home and abroad to go back home and develop their homeland Bissaku.
“The land is asking for the nicest of infrastructure Bissas have put up down south. We need to better the lives of our families back home to make Bissaku the business and economic hub of the Bawku area.
“Let us leverage on the human resources and the little capital available to ensure the development and betterment of our lives,” he added.
Sukuma, meaning coming together in the Bissa language, is a durbar initiated by the Bissa community in the Greater Accra Region to celebrate thier culture and unity.
The theme for the maiden edition’s celebration is ‘Preserving Our Culture and Building Unity to Promote Peace Towards Election 2024 – The Role of All Citizens’.
