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Boti Falls losing its beauty, relevance …due to bad roads
Boti Falls
The Eastern regions’ tourism pride, the Boti Falls, the only twin water falls in Ghana is under serious threat of losing its beauty and relevance on the world’s tourism map.
The problem is not illegal felling of trees, bush fires or land litigations that have been a threat for its survival.
The biggest concern for tourists and other visitors to the place has been the bad road network to the Falls.
“Very soon, there would not be any Boti Falls in Ghana because there would be no access road to the place,”Dade Mantse Kwame Teye Okletey told The Spectator in a chat.
Dade Mantse Okletey made the appeal at this year’s Eastern Regional World Tourism Day celebration at the Boti Falls Resort last Wednesday.
“The road network to the Falls is making it unattractive for people to participate in any activity there”
The Falls has been created by the Pawnpawn River which takes its source from a mountain at the Ahenkwa-Amalakpo Forest Reserve before falling over an igneous rock outcrop at Boti Langmase, near Huhunya Forest Reserve in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.
The facility is located about 17 kilometres north-east of Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, about 30 minutes’ drive from Koforidua andan hour andhalf drive from Accra.
Due to the bad nature of the road, there have been frequent break-down of both commercial and private vehicles, school buses, researchers and tourist vehicles visiting the sight.
“The road to the Falls is so bad that visitors have refused to visit the place for fear that their vehicles would break down” he said.
He advised the government to turn its eye to the tourism sector, especially the Boti Falls to enable more tourists to visit the facility to generate income for the country.
Speaking on the theme for the celebration, “Tourism and Green Investment” the Dade Mantsesaid, his people could ‘green’ the area but the bad road network would make it unattractive for tourists to drive through it.
, Dade Mantse Okletey urged the inhabitants of the area not to leave the tourist sites in the hands of politicians because governments would go and come but the sites would still be there to generate employment and revenue for them.
The Eastern Regional Director of Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Madam Dinah AduOwusu said the environment was getting degraded and tourist sites were also being threatened, the reason this year’s tourism day celebration theme was chosen to inform the citizenry to plant more trees.
She said the 2023 National Tourism Day celebration was held at Ada in the Volta Region and commended the Forestry Commission for providing seedlings to the Eastern region for planting to commemorate the occasion.
The Manager of the Boti Falls Resort, Mrs Irene AkuaDjandjoe also expressed concern about the road network to the Resort and appealed to the Assembly to rehabilitate it for commuters.
She said, Kingdom Ventures, managers of the facility had invested huge sums of money to bring the Falls to at least International standard but the bad road was posing a great challenge to realising that.
A driver, Daniel Teye who ply Koforidua to Boti said the fare is GhȻ 15.00 but due to the nature of the road they do not get passengers.
He said a journey of about 30 minutes sometimes takes two hours depending on the number of passengers in the vehicle.
Daniel Teye appealed to the government to come to their aid, saying he sometimes fear for the sick and pregnant women since it is very difficult to get vehicles to convey them to access health care in the city.
From Samuel OpareLartey, Boti Falls, Huhunya
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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