Volta Minister Urges Chiefs to Use Festivals for Development
Volta Regional Minister Urges Chiefs to Use Festivals for Development
Volta Regional Minister James Gunu has a message for traditional authorities across the region, festivals shouldn’t just be about celebration. They should be opportunities to actually build something lasting for their communities.
Speaking at a durbar of chiefs and people of the Klefe Traditional Area during this year’s Annual Yam Festival, held under the theme Harnessing Skills Development of the Youth Through Technical Education: The Role of Our Communities Within Government’s Reset Agenda, Gunu urged chiefs to use these annual celebrations to kickstart self-help development projects, particularly around school infrastructure and other community amenities.
His reasoning was simple real development happens when people rally around themselves and invest directly in their own traditional areas, rather than waiting entirely on outside support.
Gunu made it clear that government would have every reason to back traditional areas that show this kind of initiative, since self-help projects ultimately work hand in hand with what government is already trying to achieve.
Gunu didn’t shy away from pointing out a broader problem he’s observed. Some traditional areas, he noted, have been holding annual festivals for years without anything tangible to show for it no visible projects, no lasting impact. In his view, that pattern doesn’t reflect well on the institution of chieftaincy as a whole.
Against that backdrop, Gunu held up the Klefe Traditional Area as a genuine success story. Under the leadership of Paramount Chief Togbe Koku Dzaga XI, the community has spent the past three years using its annual festival to raise funds for boys’ and girls’ dormitories, along with an attached teachers’ bungalow for the Klefe Technical Institute. Gunu praised their commitment and pledged the Volta Regional Coordinating Council’s continued support in helping them reach their goals.
Togbe Koku Dzaga XI echoed Gunu’s sentiment, reminding attendees that the Yam Festival has always been about more than culture and celebration it’s also a platform for raising funds toward real development, specifically for the Klefe Technical Institute.
He credited the progress made over the past three years to contributions from friends, organisations, institutions, and public-spirited individuals, both at home and abroad, all rallying around the same goal.
For Togbe Dzaga, technical and vocational education carries real weight beyond the classroom. Undoubtedly, technical and vocational education is an impetus for self-reliance. It is an avenue to equip the young and upcoming generation with practical skills to enable them to assume responsible positions as employers rather than employees in society, he said.
Beyond infrastructure, Togbe Dzaga had a direct appeal to the young people of Klefe, particularly students to build strong mental and ethical foundations and make the most of their time at the Technical Institute, with the goal of becoming responsible leaders in the future.
He also warned against the influence of what he described as selfish, parochial-minded individuals attempting to lure young people into hard drugs, stressing that their lives matter not just to themselves, but to the entire community. He called on the people of Klefe to strengthen traditional systems of discipline, care, and shared responsibility, framing it as everyone’s duty to help raise the community’s children well.
Evans Kuami Buami, Chairman of the Annual Festival Planning Committee, appealed to government, NGOs, public-spirited organisations, and education stakeholders to help Klefe upgrade its Technical Institute to the standard the community envisions. He noted that beyond the festival itself, the community has also relied on communal levies over the years to complete important facilities like teachers’ bungalows and dormitories structures that were jointly inaugurated by both Gunu and Togbe Dzaga XI.
Ho Municipal Chief Executive Stephen Adom also commended Klefe’s approach, pledging the Assembly’s readiness to help accelerate growth in the area. He assured the chiefs that the next round of GETFund projects would extend to the Klefe Technical Institute, reaffirming that the community wouldn’t be left out when it comes to sharing in national development resources.
Building on their track record of communal levies and festival fundraising, the Klefe community is now looking ahead to an ambitious list of additions an administration block, a dining hall with a kitchen, an assembly hall, a library, and a fully equipped practical workshop, among other key structures.
