The Northern Students Union (NSU) at the weekend awarded six personalities for contributing to the development of education in the three northern regions.
They are; Professor John Sebeyem Nabila, President of the National House of Chiefs, Professor David Miller, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) and Professor Haruna Yakubu, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Cape Coast.
The rest are; Mr Kenneth Dabour, a former Regional Director of Education in charge of Upper East Region, Mrs. Melanie Kasise, Director of Sirigu Pottery in the Upper East Region and Mr. Fuseini Abdual Majeed, immediate past National President of NSU.
Citations were read and presented to them in addition to certificates and smocks among other things for their meritorious service to the development of education in the area.
The function, which took place in Bolgatanga, was on the theme; "Conflict Prevention and Management; The Role of the Northern Student".
It was aimed at urging the northern students to eschew conflicts and help restore and promote lasting peace in the regions.
Mrs Lucy Awuni, Upper East Regional Deputy Minister, commended the award winners for their contribution and challenged them to come out with programmes and policies that would make significant impact on the lives of the people in their respective communities.
She urged them to initiate pragmatic measures to help solve the numerous chieftaincy and land disputes problems bedeviling the three northern regions.
Mrs Awuni blamed the economic and social woes of the region on the British Colonial Government and successive governments after independence for not paying attention to the development of the north.
She indicated that the present government was committed to addressing the development problem and had introduced the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) which would address most of the infrastructure needs of the region and attract investment to reduce poverty.
Mrs. Awuni, however, cautioned that that dream might fail if the people in the area did not stop conflicts and continue to fight among themselves, stressing that "nobody can solve the conflicts in the north better than northerners themselves".
Mrs Awuni urged northerners, especially students, to mount vigorous and persistent campaign against violent conflicts and chieftaincy disputes in their various communities and fight against poverty, diseases and deprivation.
She indicated that the Government was also committed to investing in the youth through the creation of sustainable opportunities.
As part of that, funds had been allocated for the National Vocational Institute Programme under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to start implementing the National Apprenticeship programme, she said.
Mr. Albert Yelyang, a Data Analyst of the Ghana Network for Peace Building (GHANEP), called on the youth to resist anybody who would want to use them to cause trouble.
He said they should rather form pressure groups to get themselves actively involved in campaigning against any possibility that had the tendency of creating conflict.
He urged the students to use their research capabilities to help unearth the untold historical antecedences that continued to thwart the peace efforts in the north especially in the area of chieftaincy and land disputes.
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