A picture of the Deputy General Secretary for GNAT, in Charge of Education and Professional Development, Kwame Dagbandow has since yesterday, May 17, 2022, been shared widely on social media.
A short description attached to the picture read, “Deputy GNAT General Secretary, Dagbandow Kwame, goes on his knees to plead with residents of Bawku and its environs to give peace a chance where teachers are fleeing because of the conflict.”
But Mr. Dagbandow, the man seen kneeling in the picture, has taken strong exception to the information that followed the viral picture. He explained that there was more to the picture than was shared on social media adding that the information attached to the picture was not exact.
He said he was only there to beseech the chiefs and people of the area to ensure that there is peace in the area and not as what was put out by the media.
This came to light when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, today, Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
“I went there [Bawku] on behalf of my General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Tanko Musah. You would recall that on the 13th of May, my General Secretary granted an interview to Tv3 and in that interview, he called for peace in Bawku. The reason why we called for peace in Bawku is that we are fully informed of the fact that teachers are leaving the place. Yesterday it was confirmed that 104 teachers had been relieved from Bawku and 20 are still on the table to be released and I want to believe that health workers and all other workers have left the place.”
“We are saying that the community should give peace the chance. So the General Secretary sent me to come and say that we need peace in Bawku. We know that already, we are faced with poverty in that area. We also know that education is the key to unlocking development so if we cannot have our teachers in the classroom to teach, what it then means is that, we will not be able to use education to bring about development in that area,” he explained.
Mr. Dagbandow stressed that he “went there as a messenger” to meet with the chiefs and people of the area, to seek peace. He thus explained that the insinuation that he was begging teachers to stay was inaccurate. He said he rather knelt to appeal to the traditional leaders and the people of the area to give peace a chance.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
