Politics & Political Leaders:

In December 2004, eight political parties contested parliamentary elections and four parties, including the NPP, NDC and PNC, contested presidential elections. This election was reported to have a remarkable turnout of 85.12% according to the Electoral Commission. Despite a few incidents of intimidation and minor irregularities, domestic and international observers judged the elections generally free and fair. There were several isolated incidents of election-related violence, but the election was generally peaceful in most of Ghana. John Agyekum Kufuor was re-elected president with 52.45% of the vote against three other presidential candidates, including former Vice-President John Atta Mills of the NDC and Edward Mahama of the PNC. Thirty constituencies were created in the period between the 2000 and 2004 elections, resulting in a 230-member Parliament.

Lawyer John Akparibu Ndebugri (picture, right) of the PNC political party won the parliamentary sit for Bawku West District against Moses Appiah Abaagre of the NPP and Cletus Avoka of NDC. Moses Appiah Abaagre (picture, left) has been endorsed the District Chief Exercutive of Bawku West District for a second term.

Climatic Conditions:

Zebilla's warm climate has an annual mean temperature between 26°C and 29°C. Temperatures range from 15 to 31 degrees celcius and humid in the raining season (May to September). Variations in the principal elements of temperature, rainfall, and humidity that govern the climate are influenced by the movement and interaction of the dry tropical continental air mass, or the harmattan, which blows from the northeast across the Sahara, and the opposing tropical maritime or moist equatorial system. The cycle of the seasons follows the apparent movement of the sun back and forth across the equator. During summer in the northern hemisphere, a warm and moist maritime air mass intensifies and pushes northward across the area. A low-pressure belt, or intertropical front, in the air mass brings warm air, rain, and prevailing winds from the southwest. As the sun returns south across the equator, the dry, dusty, tropical continental front, or harmattan, prevails. The harmattan season with its dry, hot days and relatively cool nights (~15 degrees celcius) from November to late March or April, is followed by a wet period that reaches its peak in late August or September. Zebilla in the drier northern savanna receives rainfall of 1,000 millimeters per year and temperature as high as 31°C is common. Humid conditions also prevail in Zebilla during the rainy season but during the harmattan season, humidity drops as low as 25 percent in Zebilla. Dry season starts from around late September to early May.

Food Production:

Subsistent farming is the main occupation in Bawku West District. Mixed farming and mixed cropping are practised to take advantage of animal manure as well as bullock plowing, etc. The harvest of more than two crops from the same piece of land per season is also possible if the maturity satge of the crops differ and the planting times well planned. The main crop production season usually starts in May and ends in October. Crops produced in the district include rice, millet, maize, beans, peanuts and soghum. Most farm operations are done with physical labor usually with a hoe and cutlass. Most farmers in the district currently have bullock plows to till their land as well as plow others land for extra income (picture, left). Some NGOs in the district supply these plows to farmers at subsidized prices. Few farmers can afford modern farm machinery operations, fertilizers and herbicides. In villages fortunate to have dugout dams, farmers occupy their time after the main cropping season with the production of vegetables like onions, tomatoes, water melons and green vegetables. The Bawku Onion production is known countrwide for its quality and high productivity level.

Health Care:

There are currently two health care centres in the Bawku West District, located in Binaba and Zebilla. Though government has subsidized health care cost, not all people can afford health care services at all times. The cash and carry program in health care services in Ghana means that one has to paid for all consultation and perscription drugs before treatment. Infants and the elderly enjoy a lower health care service cost. Critical cases are transfered to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital by ambulance services. Staff accomodation is provided for nurses, technicians, etc in the health care centre premises. A few beds are available for doctors to detain and observe patients if necessary.

Education:

Primary and junior secondary school education is tuition-free and mandatory. The Government of Ghana's support for basic education is unequivocal. Article 39 of the constitution mandates the major tenets of the free, compulsory, universal basic education (FCUBE) initiative. Launched in 1996, it is one of the most ambitious pre-tertiary education programs in West Africa.

Since 1986, pre-tertiary education in Ghana includes six years of primary education, three years at the junior secondary school level and three years at the senior secondary school level. Successful completion of senior secondary school leads to admission eligibility at training colleges, polytechnics, and universities. Senior secondary school is the highest level a student can attain in Bawku West District and depending on the grades obtained upon graduation can pursue post secondary education in other parts of the country.

Non Governmental Organizations:

Non Governmental Organizations in Bawku West District include the Focal NGO, Center for Community Development Initiatives (CODI), Action Aid, and many more. There exist a good level of collaboration between the District Assembly and the NGOs. The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) Programme has it that five out of ten regions in Ghana have more than 40 percent of their population living in poverty in 1999; the worse affected being the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Regions. According to the figures, nine out of ten people in the Upper East and seven out of ten in the Northern Region were classified poor in 1999. It would not therefore be out of place to say that the Bawku West District is one of the poorest districts in the Upper East Region.

Non Governmental Organizations are doing well to assist the people come out of the misery of poverty in terms of teaching the locals modern and less expensive methods in food production, Community Developements initiatives, Aids Awareness, Child Education, Sanitation, Tree Planting, Family Health, etc. These NGOs rely on donations mainly from people in the West and so any intervention that would seek to reverse the situation would be greatly appreciated by the people.