Events (Franz Kröger, Robert Asekabta, Cornelius Adumpo, John Agandin et.al.)

May 15, 2017
(ghanaweb May 15, 2017) Bulsa North and South District Chief Executives, nominated by the President in April 2017 (see BULUK 10, p. 25), were confirmed.
The Bulsa South District Assembly confirmed Mr. Daniel Gariba Kwame, who received 26 out of 27 votes or 96%.
After about four hours of consultation and two rounds of elections, the Bulsa North District Assembly elected a presiding member. Eventually, David Afoko received 30 votes out of 43 or 69.7 %.

December 22-23, 2017
Feok Festival on the Durbar Grounds in Sandema
First day: Grand Durbar; Second Day: Archers’ Competition
(See review by Augustine A. Atano, BULUK 11)

January 08, 2018
(ghanaweb: January 8, 2018) Naab Azagsuk Azantilow, the Paramount Chief of the Bulsa Traditional Area, has expressed concern about the current penchant of parents in his jurisdiction to give their children local names that are alien to their ethnic group.
Speaking during the annual Feok festival, the chief said, “If you get into our land, you will find out that parents are giving names…like Kofi, Kojo, Kwame and the likes… This is not good.”

Martin Amidu

January 11, 2018
(ghanaweb January 12, 2018) Martin Amidu (a Bulsa from Kadema who is also a former Attorney General and anti-corruption crusader) was appointed the country’s first Special Prosecutor of the NPP Government of President Akufo-Addo. As a member of the NDC party, he had been very critical of the then John Mahama administration.
The office of the Special Prosecutor is one of the major ways by which the New Patriotic Party government has promised to deal with corruption within government. The Special Prosecutor is expected to take legal action against past and present government officers believed to have engaged in acts of corruption while in office.

The new dining hall under construction

January 12, 2018, see also August 31 and September 15, 2018
(Buluk Kaniak, January 12, 2018, Samari Samson Eliasu)
Fumbisi Senior High Agric School is going to have the biggest dining hall in the Upper East Region when completed. The dining hall and a girls’ dormitory were started by the NDC government and completed by the Nana Addo Government. Handing over and commissioning was done by the acting Upper East Regional Minister and MP for Zebila, Hon. Frank Fuseini Adongo in Bulsa South at the Fumbisi SHS Campus. The occasion was graced by chiefs and queen mothers, the MP of the Constituency and the past DCE Hon. Elizabeth Afuick.

March 3, 2018
Bulsa Feok – Accra Chapter
Bulsa of Accra and its surroundings celebrated the Festival called “Bulsa Feok – Accra Chapter”. According to J. Agandin, “The Accra edition of Bulsa Feok came off successfully at the Kawukudi Park. The event was organized by the Buluk Bisa Club, an association of Bulsa in Accra. Activities carried out as part of the celebration included cultural drumming and dancing and an exhibition of Bulsa cultural objects, dishes, drinks, clothing, and lifestyle. The event was crowned with the Bulsa war dance performed by a selection of war dancers from Sandema.”
(See also John Agandin’s contribution “The Bulsa Feok- Accra Chapter” and “Discussions in the Facebook Group Buluk Kaniak”, in BULUK 11).

March 15 – May 16, 2018
Robert Asekabta visited his long time friend Gérard Guittet in France.
(See his article “My Journey to France” in BULUK 11)

March 16, 2018
(ghanaweb, March 17) Gina Blay, wife of the acting National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, was appointed Ghana’s Ambassador to Germany.

April 23, 2018
(ghanaweb, April 27) A Bulsa chief’s Son was accused of having abducted a 17-year-old BECE candidate of Doninga Junior High School. Schoolchildren in the Builsa South District staged a street rally in protest against this abduction. The accused person was arrested by the police.
(See also “Discussions in the Facebook Group Buluk Kaniak – 4. On bride capture and forced marriages…” – BULUK 11)

Photo: GILLBT

June 29, 2018
(www.gillbt.org Front Page News, GILLBT)
The Buli translation of the complete Bible was issued first in Sandema on February 4 and then in Accra on February 12. It had taken over 40 years of translating and editing to prepare this book for publication. Among the translators (first of the New Testament) were Ian and Claire Gray with Samson Amoak and Collins Abagme, Paul and Jean Dancy with Peter Wangara, Todd and Karla Poulter with Peter Wangara. In 2016 the Buli Translation Team completed the full Buli Bible.

June 2018
Uwasi Dam completed
(Samari Samson Eliasu in Facebook) The Uwasi dam has been completed and is awaiting to be handed over to the people. The dam was started in August 2015 by the government under the Livelihood Support Investment Project. The project was undertaken by Messrs. Munisco Limited at a cost of GHC 8,556,450.00.
Photos: The dam under construction

July, 2018
Margaret and Christine Arnheim, members of Maaka e.V., a German NGO, visited Gbedema to check up on both ongoing and previous projects.
(See article “Maaka Projects in Gbedema”, BULUK 11)

On the right: President Akufo-Addo, centre: Sandemnaab Azagsuk

July 20, 2018
(Cornelius Adumpo) President Akufo-Addo visited Sandema at the end of his 2-day tour of the Upper East Region. The President said that in this year they would construct 570 dams in the three northern regions, of which the Bulsa area is getting 20 – ten for Bulsa North and ten for Bulsa South. Specifically, he stated that, “There are two in Sandema, two in Yaga [Wiaga?], two in Chuchuliga, two in Sanyasi [Siniensi?] and two in Kandema [Kadema?].” He bemoaned the fact that for far too long farm produce rots because of the unavailability of storage facilities. He added that, “At the end of the year, when the fifty warehouses are in place, that is also going to be a thing of the past. Five of these warehouses are going to be constructed in the Upper East Region, of which Sandema will have one”.

August 27, 2018
(Angaaba Atesiuk Peter, 27 August in Facebook) On August 26, between Naadema and Kategra, a gallant mason from Naadema nabbed a hardened robber who ordered the mason at gun point to give up his motor bike keys or risk losing his life. In fact, the defiant, brave mason dropped the keys, but when the callous robber bent down to pick them up, the smart mason pounced on him, seized the gun and marched him to the Fumbisi Police Station. The robber, who is a Fulani by tribe, revealed that he and his associates have been responsible for the series of robbery cases in Fumbisi over the years…
This is a very worrying situation and there is great fear of using major roads, especially in Builsa South…

August 31, 2018 (?)
Dr. Clement Apaak, MP for Bulsa South, commissioned the Dining Hall and Girls’ Dormitory at Fumbisi Senior High School.

See also January 12, 2018 (planning) and September 15

September 15, 2018
(ghanaweb September15, 2018) GES Director handed over the keys to the new Fumbisi SHS to the headmaster. The school has a 1,500 capacity multipurpose dining hall with a modern kitchen and a one-storey 250-bed capacity girls’ dormitory. The dining hall was awarded on contract on September 15, 2015 under the erstwhile NDC government and was scheduled to be completed in 18 months’ time at a cost of GHC 1,493,473.48. The girls’ dormitory was awarded the contract on June 3, 2015 and was to be completed in 18 months’ time at a cost of GHC 962,947.76. Both projects were funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund.

September 2018 (first half of the month)
Due to the spillage of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso as well as the heavy rainfalls, parts of the three regions of northern Ghana were seriously flooded. Sandema and other Bulsa towns and villages suffered from this natural disaster: Several houses collapsed and many farms were destroyed by the flood. According to Patrick Aparik, for a short time it was not possible to use the road to Navrongo. In some parts of Sandema, the flood blocked people from going to market, work and the farm.

September 22, 2018
Dr. Bawumia mourns with bereaved families in Siniensi-Yikpieng (Cornelius Adumpo).

The vice-president of the republic, Dr. Mahamood Bawumia, paid a one day visit to Siniensi-Yikpieng to mourn with the families of the two people who lost their lives during this year’s flooding. At the durbar of chiefs and people at the Yikpieng Primary School, the president said that government will make sure through NADMO (National Disaster Management Organization) that all the affected victims are given relief items. Dr. Bawumia later presented GHC 5,000.00 to each of the two bereaved families.

The Vice President and his entourage after landing in his helicopter. This was probably the first plane having landed in Siniensi.

The Vice President is shaking hands with the Sandema Naab (second from left), the Siniensi Naab, Apigjiak Afulang (with a red cap) and others

October 5, 2018
(Cefelik Afelik in Facebook) Mr. Jacob Adongo, a former geography teacher of SANSEC (now Sandema Senior High School), won the National Best Teacher Award (second cycle category).

Mr. Jacob Adongo

October 18, 2016
(Facebook) A first meeting to plan the election of a new Miss Feok Ghana took place. Judges will be Agnes Chigabatia, Evans Atuick and Cornelius Adumpo.

Hon. Mrs. Agnes Chigabatia as the Grand Princess and some Queens Mothers at the Jubilee House in Accra

October 23, 2018
(Peacefmonline.com October 26, 2018) Naab Azagsuk, the Paramount Chief of the Bulsa, together with Bulsa chiefs and other people, paid a courtesy visit to President Akufo-Adoo, the head of state.
“The chiefs and people of the Bulsa Traditional Area…expressed satisfaction with the various programmes and policies being implemented by the Akufo-Addo administration, notably the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, One District, One Factory, One Village, One Dam, among others. ….12 mechanized boreholes have also been constructed in the traditional area for which we, the people of Bulsa, are most grateful to you…”
That notwithstanding, Naab Azantilow appealed to the government to help complete a self-help project for the senior high school at Chuchuliga, absorb the Weiga [Wiaga] Community School into the public sector, tar the Navrongo-Sandema-Wiaga-Fumbisi Road as well as the Sandema-Doninga-Santejan-Wa Road, establish a tractor pool in the area, set up a nurse or teacher school, a technical institute, a district hospital as well as other community-centered projects.

President Akufo-Addo (first row, middle) and, at his right side, the Sandemnaab Azagsuk, and most of the Bulsa chiefs (in red caps)

November 7, 2018 (via John Agandin)
Hon. Samuel Kofi Ahiave Dzamesi, Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, visited Kadema yesterday to see first-hand damage from illegal mining activities in the area.
His visit follows a report made to the presidency by the Bulsa Chiefs during their recent visit to the Jubilee house regarding the menace of illegal mining in the Bulsa area. According to sources, the Kadema mine was not yet known as a galamsey site in the country and hence was not included in the places to be protected by the Operation Vanguard military unit that is patrolling mining areas to stop the illegal activity. Therefore, after the report by the chiefs, the president sent the chieftaincy minister to visit the community and to provide him with first-hand information on the extent of illegal mining in the area.

November 27, 2018
(via Robert Asekabta) The newly appointed Regional Minister for the Upper East Region, Hon. Paulina Abayade, paid a familiarisation visit to Sandema where she met the President of the Bulsa Traditional Council, the Divisional Chiefs, Sub chiefs and people of the Bulsa.