Wa, Ghana – President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, has returned to the Upper West Region to express his heartfelt gratitude to the chiefs and people for their overwhelming support in the 2024 general elections.
Addressing a gathering during his visit, President Mahama emphasized the importance of showing appreciation to those who contributed to his victory.
He noted that the people of Upper West played a crucial role in the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s electoral success, delivering all 11 parliamentary seats in the region and voting massively for him as President.
President Mahama began his “Thank You Tour” with a courtesy visit to the Paramount Chief of the Waala Traditional Area, Wa Naa Naa Fuseini Pelpuo IV, at the Wa Palace. He later proceeded to the Wa Jubilee Park, where he addressed a large crowd of supporters, traditional leaders, and residents.
At the Jubilee Park, President Mahama assured the people of his government’s commitment to the construction of roads, job creation, and the overall development of the Upper West Region.
He reiterated that the region would not be left behind in national progress and that efforts would be made to address its most pressing challenges.
Read below the full word-for-word speech delivered by President Mahama:
Thank you very much. The Vice President of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs and my overlord, because he has given me a chief in his traditional area, Zini Kuoro, members of the Regional House of Chiefs, the member of the Council of States, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, the Regional Minister and other Ministers of State, the Honorable Members of Parliament, Honorable Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, Regional Executives, Regional Council of Elders and Constituency Executives of the NDC, CEOs of state institutions and other government appointees, heads of security services and government departments, the clergy and imams, representatives of invited organizations, especially my brothers and sisters, persons with disability, friends from the media, citizens of the Upper West Region, ladies and gentlemen.
In every religion, we have texts in the holy books supporting thanks given. In the Bible, we say, in all things give thanks to God. Again, there’s the story of the ten lepers who were cured by Jesus Christ and the following day, only one of them returned to say thank you.
And Jesus asked, but where are the other nine? So it means that the holy book tells us that in all things, if we have done a favor, we should come back and say thank you.
And so like that one leper who came back to say thank you to Jesus Christ, I, John Dramani Mahama, am back here in the Upper West Region to say thank you to the people of the Upper West.
It is with a heart full of gratitude that I stand before you today in this noble land this land of peace, pride, and perseverance. I bring you warm greetings from the entire leadership of the National Democratic Congress and from my wife, Lordina Mahama, and I bring you the warm message of thank you.
And I’ll say, Tabarka, Tabarka. I want to thank the Upper West Region for your unwavering loyalty and support. I want to thank you for your confidence in the vision and leadership of the NDC.
I want to thank you for your support in the 2024 general elections. Your support was extraordinary. You stood firm, you spoke clearly, and you chose hope over despair, unity over division, and development over stagnation.
I want to especially thank our chiefs from Jirapa to Kaleo, from Tumu to Gwollu. We visited your palaces, you received me like a true son, and on election day, you came out in your numbers. In defiance of hardship, in the face of challenges, you voted decisively for me and the NDC party.
I do not take this for granted. And I’ll never forget the favour you have done me. I thank you for your overwhelming confidence in giving me 11 seats out of 11 in the Upper West Region.
Indeed, that contributed to the overwhelming number of seats that we won in parliament. It’s beyond our imagination. NDC has had the highest number of seats in parliament in the history of the Fourth Republic.
183 seats and collaborating with four independents mean that we control more than two-thirds of the parliament of Ghana. And the people of the Upper West Region have played a great part in this by giving us all the 11 seats that were up for grabs in this region. The people of the Upper West Region have always stood on the right side of history.
The region has been a stronghold for democratic values, good governance and justice. And I’m proud to say that once again you have reaffirmed your faith in the National Democratic Congress not just as a political party, but as a vehicle for national transformation. I want to thank our traditional leaders for their wisdom and their quiet guidance for providing moral direction in a time of political uncertainty.
I want to thank our youth for your vibrant energy for mobilizing and conversing in the towns and hinterlands. I salute our women who led the door-to-door campaigns, organized community engagements and held this movement together with grace and power. And especially I want to thank our party executives, our polling agents, our foot soldiers. You have been the backbone of this success we achieved.
This region has been a source of some of the country’s finest human resources producing distinguished leaders who have played pivotal roles in every aspect of our national development. Even at the height of governance today, the Upper West Region is well represented by distinguished sons and daughters whose dedication continues to shape our national progress.
In my current administration, the region is well represented. The region can boast of the Hon. Abdul Rashid Pelpuo, who is the Minister of Labour and Employment.
The region can boast of the Hon. Charles Lwanga Puozuing, who is the Upper West Regional Minister. Deputy Commissioner of Police Abdul-Osman Razak, the National Security Coordinator, is from this region.
The Director General of the Ports and Harbours Authority, Brigadier General Paul Seidu Tanye-Kulono, is from this region. Mallam Issa Ishak, the CEO of the Ghana Highway Authority, is from this region. Seidu Yonye, who has just been appointed CEO of Produce Buying Company Ltd., is from this region.
My daughter Shamima Muslim, Deputy Government Spokesperson, is from Upper West Region. We also have Dr. Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali, who is the Director General of the Ghana Maritime Authority. We have Adam Sulley, who is the Deputy Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust, SNIT.
We have Kale Cesar, who is the Managing Director of the Metro Mass Transit Company. We have Iddrisu Damboyabo Mahmoud, who is the Deputy CEO of Ghana Enterprise Agency. We have Samira Abdul-Azeez, who is also the Deputy CEO of Ghana Enterprise Agency.
We have Abdulai Batiah Santi, who is the Deputy CEO of Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation. And we have Nuhu Putiah, who is the Deputy CEO of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency.
These are distinguished sons of this region who are helping me to transform our nation, Ghana, and do the resets that we promised you.
Ladies and gentlemen, elections are only the beginning. The real work begins now. And I’m here not just to say thank you, but to reassure you that your voice has been heard.
Your vote has a purpose, and that purpose is to bring development to the region. We are determined under the guidance of the NDC’s 2024 Manifesto to bring transformational change to every corner of Ghana. And especially to regions like the Upper West Region that have long been underdeveloped, neglected, despite its huge potential.
Since taking over the reins of government, our focus has been on stabilizing the economy. We therefore presented to Parliament in March this year a budget which was aimed at severely trimming expenditure and channeling the saved revenue into priority programs as promised in our Manifesto. I’m happy to report to you that our efforts to stabilize the economy have begun to yield results.
And it is evident in the improved performance of our local currency and also a gradual reduction of prices of goods and services in the market. I wish to commend the Honorable Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana along with their teams for the close collaboration and coordination they are displaying in this economic turnaround. I’m sure that by the time the Honorable Minister comes back to Parliament to present his mid-year review budget in August, we’ll have more good news for Ghanaians.
My brothers and sisters, Cabinet will soon approve priority projects under the Big Push infrastructural program. Understandably, a significant number of these priority projects will be in the road sector. These works include the dualization of major highways, including the Accra-Kumasi, Accra-Takrade, Accra-Aflao roads.
We’ll also tackle major bridges such as the Dambai Bridge, the Ekye-Amanfrom Bridge, rehabilitation of the Bupe Bridge, Daboya Bridge and Yapei Bridges. We’re also designing a new expressway between Accra and Kumasi, which will reduce the travel time between the two largest cities in Ghana to about two and a half hours.
During the campaign, we traveled on the terrible road network that has become characteristic of the Upper West Region.
In this region, under the Big Push, we are prioritizing the Wa-Tumu-Bolgatanga Trunk Road. And the Techiman-Wenchi-Bole-Wa-Hamile Corridor. Sections of the Swala-Fufulso Road will also be resurfaced to improve connectivity between the Upper West and the Savannah and Northern Regions.
These roads will not only enhance trade and transport, but they will also stimulate cross-border business and revive economic activity.
Equally, we’ll upgrade roads in the Wa-East, Nadowli, Daffiama-Bussie-Issa and Sissala Districts to improve access to markets, schools and health facilities. My brothers and sisters, work will begin very soon.
In a few months, you’ll see contractors on all these roads because the money has been provided in the budget. This year, we set aside 14 billion Ghana Cedis for the Big Push. And the Finance Minister has assured me that all the contractors will get 15% mobilization to be able to mobilize to site.
And he has also assured me that any contractor on the Big Push projects who presents his certificate for payment will be paid within two weeks of presentation of the certificate. So no contractor will have the excuse that he has not been paid. And so we want to see work continuing as soon as the contract is awarded.
My brothers and sisters, we’re also prioritizing agriculture under the Feed Ghana Program. The Upper West Region is expected to be a major beneficiary of this program. The NDC administration understands that farming is the lifeblood of this region.
And so under the Feed Ghana and Agriculture for Wealth Creation Agenda, we will construct and rehabilitate small and medium-scale dams across Sissala, Lambussie and Wa East. We’ll invest in community-based irrigation schemes to promote dry season farming such as the Kamba Irrigation Dam. We’ll provide subsidized fertilizer, seeds and improved mechanization services.
Establish modern warehouses and cold storage facilities to reduce post-harvest losses. The region will also benefit from the farmer’s service centers we intend to set up. And I cut sod for the one in Gwollu in 2016 before I left office. Unfortunately, my administration was truncated and that project never took off.
So one of the first to be established will be in the Upper West Region in Gwollu to fulfill that promise that I made. We’re going to ensure that farming becomes a viable and profitable occupation, especially for young people who are willing to go into agriculture.
In education, we recognize the need to bridge the rural-urban gap. I’ve seen schools in this region where children still sit on the floor and where teachers lack the most basic resources.
It is as a result of this that the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Local Government and Cabinet gave a directive that 80% of the revenue for the District Assembly’s Common Fund must go directly to the districts.
And we expect that the chief executives will provide furniture for schools that don’t have it. We’ll remove schools under trees and substandard school blocks. We’ll provide chips compounds where they are not available. And so a lot of responsibility is going to rest on the shoulders of our district chief executives.
We’ll continue and complete abandoned e-blocks. So the e-blocks that were abandoned by the previous government, we’re going to continue and complete them.
We’ll absorb admission fees for all first-year students. And provision was made in the budget for this. And so the money is going to be credited to the students and it will be paid directly to the schools.
We’ll also provide free tertiary education for persons living with disability. And so for persons with disability from first year to final year, they will pay absolutely no fees. We’ll continue projects in the University of Development Studies and other tertiary institutions in this region to improve learning outcomes.
And I remember that Professor Atta Mills of Blessed Memory started a library complex and a multi-complex lecture hall in UDS, which was abandoned after NDC left office. We’re going to continue and complete it. And the hostel block that Professor Mills started that has been abandoned, we’ll continue it and complete it so that our students in UDS can have a place to stay.
We’ll provide special incentives to teachers who accept postings to rural areas in the region. We’ll expand early childhood education centers in underserved districts. And we have begun to implement the free sanitary pad program so that no girl misses school because of her menstrual period.
Our goal is clear. And our goal is that every child, no matter where they are born, should have access to quality education and the opportunity to succeed.
On youth and job creation, we know unemployment remains one of the greatest frustrations of our people. Our response, therefore, is deliberate.
Under our National Apprenticeship Program, which I launched in Tamale two weeks ago, under the Adwumawura Initiative and the One Million Coders Program, we aim to provide opportunities for all our youth. And I expect that when these programs are fully operational, the youth of the Upper West Region will take advantage of them.
Funds are not a problem because resources have been provided in the 2025 budget for all these programs to take off. Thousands of young people in the Upper West Region will be trained in various trades, including smoke-weaving, welding, plumbing, electrical works, building construction, leather work, share batter processing, and information and communications technology.
Arrangements are far advanced to inaugurate a committee which will guide the establishment of the Women’s Development Bank.
This bank will offer products tailored to support women entrepreneurs, especially those engaged in agro-processing, livestock rearing, share batter production, and market trading. We’ll also support women’s cooperatives to access markets, packaging and training, and ensure that they are not left behind in our economic recovery.
In healthcare, I have listened to your concerns about access to specialists and the referral burden placed on families. Under the Mahama Cares Program, we’ll expand access in the region for diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases, including dialysis for kidney patients.
We’ll expand CHIPS compounds with accommodation for staff. So all the existing CHIPS compounds will make sure that the nurses and the physician assistants working there have accommodation to live in the CHIPS compound so that they can provide care at any time.
We’re going to train, recruit, and post more nurses and midwives to the rural areas, to underserved areas, so that they can improve the healthcare of our rural populations.
We’ll also roll out later this year our free primary healthcare program. And under this program, any Ghanaian who goes to a CHIPS compound, a health center, a polyclinic, or a district hospital will not pay any fees, whether you have an NHIS card or not.
On water and sanitation, we will extend the distribution of water from the Jambusi Water Works to cover the greater Wa area. The Community Water and Sanitation Agency will also invest in drilling and mechanizing boreholes in small settlements, especially in the Wa East and Nandom districts. We’ll partner with district assemblies to improve public sanitation infrastructure and end open defecation.
And finally, on peace and security, we are aware of the localized tensions, be they land-related, chieftaincy-based, or driven by cross-border activities, and we shall take action to ameliorate these.
Our government will strengthen community policing systems, establish dialogue platforms between security agencies, traditional authorities, and youth groups. We’ll equip our border posts and security outposts to ensure early detection and swift intervention of any trespassers.
We’ll also soon start providing all our district police stations and strategic police posts with vehicles and equipment. This is meant to help them to fight the rampant spate of highway robbery, especially in this region. We cannot build development on a foundation of conflict.
Unity and peace are essential for our collective progress. I’m here because you believed in me. I’m here because you believed that Ghana can rise again under my watch.
I’m here because you stood firm, not for me alone, but for your children, for your grandchildren, and generations yet to come. And so let me assure you, your sacrifice will not be in vain. The Mahama government will walk with you shoulder to shoulder to ensure that the Upper West Region is not left behind in the transformation we are bringing.
So I urge you to remain steadfast. Let us work together. Let us monitor and evaluate.
Let’s hold each other accountable. Let us never surrender to the hopelessness that was tried to be imposed on us. Let our message echo from every community in the Upper West Region that the NDC will honour its word and that a new dawn has come.
May God bless the Upper West Region and may God bless our beloved country, Ghana. Thank you very much.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites
) / Ahotoronline.com | Ghana 
