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No mental health facility in the Upper West Region
● Mr Illyasu Baba
Absence of mental health facility in the Upper West Region has been identified as one of the major challenges preventing persons with mental health conditions from accessing treatment in the region.
Mental health patients are said to be loitering the streets of major towns in the region after they have been sent away from home for causing one ruckus or the other as a result of not getting the needed care and attention and no alternative places to reside.
This was made known by a Mental Health Advocate and Worker, Mr Illyasu Baba Yussif at Wa in an interview with The Spectator newspaper on the state of mental health in the region.
Mr Illyasu is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Bahass Foundation, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the needs of mental health persons in the Upper West.
His foundation mobilises persons with mental health issues on the streets, give them warm bath, clean shave, after which they are offered new clothes every month to wear.
He lamented that due to absence of a permanent mental health hospital, families of persons with the condition were torn between keeping them at home to create problems or sending them onto the streets.
“If there is a dedicated facility in the region which admits the patients and get them treated, I think some of them would have got better because sometimes it is just about having access to regular medication but this opportunity is absent in the region”, he said.
He stated that due to poverty, some people could not afford to take their relations with mental health conditions to other parts of the country where facilities were available to get catered for.
He was hoping to put up a permanent home for mental health patients but said he would need support from benevolent bodies to do so in order to be able to accommodate the patients and feed them constantly.
“Some people are left to roam the streets because they eventually become nuisance at home and to others, especially in instances where the family resides in rented apartments so they are forced to put them out on the street for the peace of everyone else”, Mr Yussif said.
He said the streets presented harsh conditions to these patients leading to deterioration of their health.
“But they know what I do and they are mostly around my office for food and other assistance, I think most of them have mild cases and would get better with just a little bit of care”, he said.
He used the opportunity to ask for support from benvolent individuals and organisations for his intended purpose and advised the youth to stay away from illicit drugs which could lead to mental problems.
When contacted, the Regional Mental Health Coordinator, Mr Sylvester Basagnia confirmed that the region did not have a mental health hospital but had a unit that was in charge of mental health and epileptic cases at the Municipal Hospital.
He said they could only detain the patients but not admit them for long so acquiring a permanent facility for such persons would be an added advantage for persons with mental health conditions and their families.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa
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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