This year’s Fao, a traditional festival observed once a year by the people of Chiana in the Kassena-Nankana West District of Ghana’s Upper East Region, has taken place with concern over the non-completion of some public projects reportedly started about ten years ago and some requests that have been neglected for decades.
There are at least three of such projects at state-owned Chiana Senior High School (CHIANASCO).
The uncompleted projects include an administration block, a girls’ dormitory wing and a classroom complex.
Some Chiana residents say the structures were being constructed under President John Dramani Mahama’s first administration but were abandoned throughout the eight-year tenure of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Work resumed on the dormitory and the classroom projects after Mahama took office again in 2025, according to them. Currently, the dormitory hall is only near completion and the classroom block, whose pillars and walls have been erected, has no roof yet.
Media Without Borders learns that the uncompleted administration building is being used as a classroom block for the students in the meantime because, fortunately, it was roofed before it was abandoned.
“Honourable Regional Minister, permit me to appeal to the Ministry of Education through you to fast-track the completion of the stalled administration block, establish a science laboratory, renovate and construct new staff bungalows, construct new dormitories and classrooms in the Chiana Senior High School to enhance the delivery of teaching and learning outcomes in the school,” said the paramount chief of the area, Pe Ditundini Adiali Ayagitam III, at the festival celebration.
The event, which saw the presence of some top government appointees, lawmakers and traditional authorities among other prominent guests, was themed: “Accelerated Education for All: The Role of Effective Partnerships.”
“Let us ensure that our schools are not just buildings, but centres of excellence equipped with the tools of the 21st century,” the chief, who is also the President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs and a Member of the Council of State, added.
School staff forced to live outside school campus
The paramount chief also told the festival crowd that the Chiana Senior High School lacked staff bungalows.
He said the school’s headmistress and most of its teachers were compelled to reside outside the campus as a result of the situation.
“Majority of the teachers, including the headmistress, are forced to live outside campus, because of a lack of staff bungalows.
“School furniture in many of the basic schools is inadequate and where there is furniture, it is in a bad condition. This is not acceptable in this fast-paced global village,” he decried.
The paramount chief also noted that the world was moving fast at a pace every child in Chiana was expected to catch up with. He mentioned one way by which “the children of Chiana and all those who choose to study in Chiana Senior High School” could align with that global pace.
“Stakeholders must work collaboratively and urgently to bridge the gap in infrastructure, digital literacy and teacher retention in my traditional area,” he pointed out.
He further stated: “To leave any child behind in education is to leave the future of Chiana behind.”
20 years of neglected requests
Chiana is found in the western zone of the district, whose border capital, Paga, is located north towards Burkina Faso.
Many say “it makes no administrative sense” for Chiana to fall under the Kassena-Nankana West District and the Chiana-Paga Constituency.
The reason they say so is that a journey to Chiana from Paga (the administrative capital under which Chiana falls) goes through two different municipalities, Kassena-Nankana and Builsa North, and it takes not just a long time but also costs more than it should.
They affirm that the main solution to this protracted agony is for Chiana to stand alone both as a district and a constituency with its own administrative capital.
The people of the area have persistently put a request for the creation of a ‘Chiana District’ and a ‘Chiana Constituency’ before successive governments, highlighting the call at every Fao festival celebration for many years, but the effort is yet to yield the preferred result.
It was one of the loud requests the paramount chief chimed again at the 2026 Fao celebration, this time in the presence of the Majority Leader of Ghana’s Parliament and Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, and other dignitaries.
“Honourable Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business, with the highest humility, one of the surest ways to address the infrastructure gaps in education, health, roads and access to overall public services to my people is to heed to the plea of my people to give us a separate constituency and a separate district.
“This appeal to the government, if granted, would not only deliver an age-old appeal to almost every government within the past two decades but would deliver improved public services to my people. My call for a separate district and constituency is more than justifiable and granted in geographic equity, devolution of power and a fulfilment of the government’s committed social contract with my people,” he stressed.
An overwhelmed health centre and an eye clinic without professionals
The state of health facilities in Chiana was also a key point in the paramount chief’s speech at the durbar.
He made it known to the crowd and the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, who chaired the event, that the eye clinic in the area, which was established and commissioned in 2011 by Ghana’s Vice President at the time, John Dramani Mahama, did not have eye professionals and lacked a lot “relevant” equipment.
The paramount chief further stated that the Chiana Health Centre had not been renovated since it was built in the 1970s, its consulting rooms were being overwhelmed by the increasing population of the area and that the quarters occupied by the healthcare staff in his chiefdom were in deplorable state.
He added that some suburbs had no Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and most CHPS compounds lacked the full team of professionals needed to deliver primary healthcare to the growing population.
“I am, therefore, appealing to you, my son, to use your good offices to help address some of the issues that continue to hamper effective health delivery for my people,” he told the GHS Director-General.
Upper East Region gets fresh projects, Majority Leader
Addressing the crowd, Ayariga revealed that the government had awarded more than 94 educational infrastructure projects across the Upper East Region.
“Government, through the Emergency GETFund (Ghana Education Trust Fund) Project has awarded over 94 educational infrastructure projects across the Upper East Region.
“These strategic investments are strengthening the foundations of our educational system through the expansion of schools, provision of teacher accommodation, the enhancement of technical and vocational education and training, and targeted interventions for girl-child education and social protection,” said the Majority Leader.
Speaking to the theme of the celebration, which he said resonated with the Reset Agenda of the Mahama Government, the Majority Leader said “for education to be of quality” every partner needed to contribute their quota and be accountable for their responsibility.
“When teachers are posted to rural areas, they must teach the children,” he stressed. “And the community must ensure that they teach. If we don’t hold each other accountable, we would be defrauding the children and also defrauding our future because those children are the future of our communities.”
A member of the Council of State, Cletus Avoka, who represented the council at the celebration, promised to present a copy of the paramount chief’s speech to the council for deliberation.
“I want to assure the people of Chiana [regarding] the speech that has been delivered by the Chiana Pio (the Paramount Chief of Chiana). I will take a copy of it and send it to the Chairman and members of the Council of State.
“We will see how we can collectively address the issue of the challenges of education that he has mentioned in his speech. In this respect, we will link up with the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and the GETFund to see what we can do, not just to improve the structures but also the quality of the facilities they have for teaching and learning,” he said.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana/West Africa
