Principal kingmakers, accredited elders together with the heads of the families of the four royal ruling houses of Ga Paramount Stool in Accra yesterday joined King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II to celebrate this year’s Yam festival to feed the stools of all the past kings who reigned as kings of the Ga State.
The festival is aimed at purifying the stools of the past kings with the blood of cows and sheep to strengthen the stools to protect lives and properties of the people of Ga.
The colourful ceremony attracted dignitaries from far and near including some chiefs and queen mothers from the various traditional councils in the Ga State.
The occasion was characterised by drumming, dancing and singing of traditional songs as well as the display of rich Ga culture and tradition.
Visitors at the ceremony were welcomed by King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II with the pouring of libation in line with the Ga customs and traditions.
Addressing the gathering, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II expressed profound appreciation to the chiefs and people of the Ga State for supporting him to ascend the Ga Paramount Stool, which is the stool of his ancestors.
He called for unity amongst the chiefs, elders and youth in Ga State to help propel socio-economic development and growth.
King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, who is very passionate about the peace and unity in Ga State, stressed that: “Our unity as citizens of Ga is paramount,” urging
all citizens to join him and assist in the social and infrastructure development processes going on.
He continued that “Our Girl-Child is becoming an endangered specie. And very soon the girl-child livelihood will be extinct. Let us all rise from the ashes to secure their future and make the Ga State great and strong again.”
He stressed the urgent need for corporate Ghana and individual philanthropists to aid and support Ga Mantse Girl Child Project that will be launched before the end of this year.
According to him, education was one of the most critical areas for the empowerment of women as the Cairo and Beijing conferences affirmed.
He stressed that offering girls, basic education, was one sure way of giving them much greater power which enables them to make genuine choices adding that “this is backed by the convention on the right of a child and the convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) against women as a basic human right.”
He noted that an educated woman always has the skills and confidence to become a better parent, worker and a citizen.
“An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. Cross country studies show that an extra year for schooling for girls reduces fertility rates by 5 to 10 per cent.
King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II contended that, that situation informed his decision to decide to campaign for the girl-child education in the Ga state.
This, according to him, was aimed at empowering them to become great women for their communities and the nation as a whole.
He stated that the girl-child campaign would involve the various communities, opinion leaders, organisations that advocate for child education and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that share in the same vision.
In order to ensure that every Ga child enrolls in school, the king pointed out that strategies have been put in place to have statistical data on the Ga school-going children.
He maintained that such data would be categorised so as to make it easier for analytical study.
He added that this would be categorised into ages 3-5, 6-13, and 14-18, stating that the children will be placed on education intervention programmes suitable for their age bracket.
According to him, the youth group from 18 above will be tailored into higher formal education or be made to acquire employable skills for themselves.
The festival started on Saturday October 27, 2018 for which the Ga Mantse, Chiefs and traditional title office holders kept wake with all the stools of the past kings of Ga and that on November 3, 2018, the Ga Mantse will organise a health screening exercise for the people in the seven divisions of the Ga State.
The festival would be climaxed on November 4, 2018 with a big ceremony that would witness the stools of the past kings of Ga being fed.
By: Freeman KORYEKPOR AWLESU
