The Education Sector in Sagnarigu Municipality
The Sagnarigu municipal assembly has been blessed by the second lady, Hajia Samira Bawumia with an ultra-modern ICT lab facility that can house sixty people at a time. This the MCE has called on her people to use it judiciously.
Under her watch as the MCE, Hajia Mariam Iddrisu is working to improve education in her municipality. Currently, about fourteen basic school infrastructures are under construction. Six of these buildings have been completed with their ancillary while the rest are in various stages of construction.
The Sagnarigu Naa has also come in to help by donating land to the assemble while partners like ActionAid have also supported in putting up a girl’s school in the municipality as well.
The three senior high schools in Sagnarigu thus Tamale senior high, Kalpohin senior high, Islamic senior high school have also benefited from infrastructure development and also logistics provision to high easy crowding in the schools due to the increment in enrolment in the schools.
To complement these structures, 1500 mono and dual desks have been distributed to schools in the municipality. The MCE has also tasked circuit supervisors to monitor schools for effective learning.
Health Sector in Sagnarigu Municipality
The health sector. Six clinics are under construction two are reading for commissioning while the remaining are still under construction. The First Lady, Her Excellency, Mrs. Rebeca Akofo Addo has built CHPS compound and provided logistics in Malshegu under the Sagnarigu municipality.
With the one village one dam project, Sagnarigu has seventeen dams been constructed. While others are completed some are still in various stages of construction. But three more will be added to make is twenty in the municipality, ten for Sagnarigu and ten for Tamale north.
All over the world, the countries that have been able to slow the spread of the virus or have the lowest mortality rate are headed by women. Women leaders have demonstrated and proved to be at the helms of affairs and tackling the virus with pragmatic and decisive measures that are proven to be working for them.
One woman in Northern Region who is holding it down in her jurisdiction is the Municipal Chief Executive(MCE) for Sagnarigu, honorable Mariam Iddrisu. Ever since the pandemic was recorded in Ghana, she has been in the frontline educating, distribution of hand sanitizers, face marks and soup to the vulnerable in her Municipality, and also implementing government directives to ensure her municipality does not record a case or slow the spread of the virus.
Mariam Iddrisu was elected Mayor of Sagnarigu Municipality, in May 2017, and she is the youngest Mayor in Ghana. She is currently one of the Vice Presidents of the Network of Locally Elected Women of Africa (REFELA-West Africa). Prior to being elected as a Mayor, she was a Public Health Practitioner working with the Ghana Health Services.
There’s a saying, “Water is Life, Sanitation is Dignity, sanitation is an attitudinal problem, If care is not taken, the assembly will use all its common fund on sanitation, because our population is growing”
Hon Maraim Iddrisu
When it comes to sanitation, Mariam Iddrisu has been very vocal about the need to keep a clean environment. Last year December, in a panel discussion with fellow MCEs at the studios of Sanatu Zambang she vows to tackle sanitation in her municipality. For this reason, an effort were been made in the past.
Under her leadership, institutional toilet facilities were built in communities to fight ODF and also the provision of communal containers to dumping sites to mitigate littering of the environment. The construction of toilets with a mechanized borehole in the following communities in Sagnarigu Municipality: GURUGU MARKET, SAGNARIGU KUKOU, WOVOGU, TUUNAYILI, FUO, PARING, KOGNI.
In this Covid-19 period, Mariam Iddrisu has teamed up with Sama Sama, a local sanitation enterprise in the municipality to provide markets and other vantage point washing materials to observe constant washing of the hands.
Sagnarigu Municipality Road Projects
The Municipal Chief Executive for Sagnarigu in the northern region, Hajia Mariam Iddrisu has cut sod for the construction of 700m road and 800m storm drain at Ward K in the Sagnarigu Municipality under the Ghana Secondary Cities Support program
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in collaboration with the World Bank is implementing the programme with an amount US$100 million for five years. About 25 municipal assemblies in Ghana are benefiting from the project.
Consequently, the eligible municipalities would have to demonstrate high performance in order to access their funds every year through Annual Performance Assessment.
The Sagnarigu municipality is the only beneficiary community of the program in the northern region
Tax and Revenue Appraisal in Sagnarigu Municipality
On the 16th of December, 2019 Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly held its maiden edition of the Annual Revenue Appraisal forum on the theme ‘’ Sitting on Gold and begging for copper, Sagnarigu beyond aid.’’
The MCE for the area, Hajia Mariam Iddrisu assured the people that, their money does not go directly into her pocket. She made this statement to clear the notion that, tax paid by citizens are not channeling to the right place.
She continues as saying that, to achieve the president vision of Ghana beyond aid, citizens needed to be proactive in honoring their tax duties. She hopes that Sagnarigu leads that in all the assemblies in the country in achieving ‘’Sagnarigu beyond aid’’.
The MCE believes they can achieve Sgnarigu beyond aid if all were to honor their tax obligations.