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The new Paramount Chief of the Tumu Traditional Area, Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton VI, has assured the people that his administration was committed to the values and ideals of peace, unity and hard work. He said he was committed to providing responsible and an all embracing traditional leadership that would offer equal opportunity for all within the traditional area to live and achieve their fullest potentials in an atmosphere of peace and harmony. "My preoccupation is to foster peace, unity and development", he said. Kuoro Kanton was addressing divisional and sub-chiefs and people of his traditional area at a colourful ceremony to mark his outoutdooring at Tumu on Thursday. The ceremony, which Vice President John Dramani Mahama attended, brought together paramount chiefs from the Upper West and Upper East regions and Burkina Faso, as well as Regional Ministers, members of parliament and district chief executives. Kuoro Kanton paid tribute to his ancestors and commended them for the great sacrifices and the legacy of peace, unity, hard work and determination they bequeathed to the people. Kuoro Kanton said despite the numerous chieftaincy litigations and conflicts in some parts of the country, the people had been able to carry on with the legacy of peaceful succession because they cherished the values and ideals of their forbearers. He said his administration would resort to peaceful resolution of all disputes and would offer his fullest support and co-operation to his colleague paramount chiefs to ensure that the region became the fortress of peace and harmonious co-existence to promote development. He said he was aware of the many development challenges confronting the people, especially in the areas of education, agriculture and health and called on the people to pool resources to help complement government's efforts to address them. Kuoro Kanton said many pupils who sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) did not get placement to senior high schools due to poor performance. He said that situation had contributed to the many young ones migrating to the south in search of non-existent jobs and consequently engaging in risky adventures. "This phenomenon is a potential threat to the realization of the government's quest for a better Ghana", Kuoro Kanton said. He said his administration would collaborate with educational authorities to improve conditions of teachers to provide quality teaching and learning at the basic level. Kuoro Kanton said issues of teachers' welfare, especially the provisions of decent accommodation for teachers in the communities would be addressed while the traditional council was prepared to release land for any educational purposes. He commended government for absorbing the Tumu Secondary/Technical onto a boarding status and appealed for the provision of infrastructure to improve the school. On health, he expressed concern about the lack of doctors and inadequate number of medical personnel at the Tumu District Hospital resulting in many preventable deaths of women and children in the area. He said the only doctor who manned the Tumu and Gwollu Hospitals had left for further studies and for the past four months now the hospitals were without any doctor.