At the heart of this year’s Buipe Damba Festival (BUDAFEST) celebrations climaxed on Saturday, 20th September, 2025 in Buipe, a powerful and urgent message echoed louder than the traditional drums: drug abuse is silently wrecking the future of Ghana’s youth.
In a speech delivered on behalf of HRM Buipewura Abdulai Jinapor II, the Paramount Chief of the Buipe Traditional Area and Vice President of the National House of Chiefs, his secretary Neripewura Panfia Kipson addressed the thousands gathered for BUDAFEST 2025, turning the cultural celebration into a rallying call for action against rising drug abuse.
“There is a sharp sword of a dark cloud looming… a mighty trauma — drug abuse — threatening the very fabric of our youth,” the Buipewura warned.
He decried the growing grip of substances like red snuff, shisha, and other narcotics on the region’s young people, describing it as an “iron cloud” seizing adolescents with alarming force. The Buipewura stressed that without decisive action, Ghana risks losing an entire generation to addiction and therefore calling on lawmakers, the security services, and traditional leaders to “critically assess the level of drug abuse and enforce the laws of narcotics.” He emphasized the need to protect the youth and warned that leadership’s efforts to ensure a brighter future could be “poisoned” by this unchecked menace.
He urged families and communities to unite:“Uphold peace as our footrest, nurture culture as our soul, pursue education as our sword, and banish drug abuse as the enemy it is.”
Speaking on behalf of the Dakpemaa Naa of Tamale, chairman for the occasion Barharu Alhassan Dabali reinforced the message:
“If we lose our youth to drugs, we lose our future,” he declared.
He called for a multi-pronged approach including:
• Community education and sensitization,
• Stronger law enforcement,
• Rehabilitation and counseling,
• And most critically, job creation and skills training to give youth alternatives to self-destructive habits.
While the Damba Festival traditionally honors the birth of Prophet Muhammad and celebrates unity, development, and peace, this year’s event served as a solemn reminder of the battle Ghana faces on the home front — not against an external enemy, but against a creeping internal crisis.
“The ancestors do not reward the idle hand that poisons itself,” the Buipewura concluded, “but the steady one that sows seeds of wisdom and reaps honor.”
BUDAFEST 2025 brought together political leaders, chiefs, queen mothers, religious heads, security officials, and youth from across the Savannah Region. Among dignitaries in attendance were: Hon. Elizabeth Ofosu Adjare, Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Hon. Dr. John jinapor, Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor, Director General of GTEC, Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor, MP for Damongo, Hon. Salisu Bi-Awuribi, Savannah regional Minister, Nana Fanyinama Masaba II, Acting National President of Zongo Community Chiefs.
Source: Padfm.com.gh/Kumatey Gorden/0243531604
