Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, Northern Regional Minister has emphasised the need to use culture as a tool to unite the people and promote the nation's cultural heritage to attract the needed foreign investment.

He said cultural practices that are inimical and divergence to the growth and development of the nation must be avoided to ensure that the nation brought up a crop of youth that was committed to shoulder the positive development of the nation for posterity.

Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru who made the call in a speech read on his behalf on Thursday in Tamale during the 2nd edition of the Senior High Schools’ Drama festival, said drama and scriptwriting must be encouraged in Senior High Schools since they helped to promote a good cultural heritage.

The festival, which brought together eight Senior High Schools in the Northern Region was under the theme: “The girl child: A gem in the family, not a bride prize”.

The Northern School of Business (NORBISCO) emerged winner out of the eight schools which took part in the competition.

NORBISCO is therefore selected to represent the region at the national level in the same competition later in the year, which is being hosted by the National Commission on Culture in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service.

Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru said child betrothal, early marriages and teenage pregnancies were prevalent in many communities of the Northern Region.

He noted that such practices were inimical to the growth and development of the country and urged stakeholders to work hard to eschew such practices.

He indicated that the current generation must show the way to achieve proper child development to ensure the prosperity of future generations.

Alhaji Mohammed Haroon Cambodia, Northern Regional Director of Education said the competition was an occasion for the students to unearth their talents and skills not only in academics but in drama and script writing.

He expressed concern about the situation in which students spent a lot of their time on surfing the internet and over concentration on the mobile phone to the neglect of their studies, noting that such practices contributed significantly to the decline of academic excellence in the region.

Alhaji Cambodia urged the students to take their studies seriously and take advantage of the availability of technology to develop their human capital and increase their opportunities on the job market.

Mrs. Gladys Tang, Acting Northern Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture indicated that the cultural display by the students pointed to the fact that the nation's cultural heritage was not lost. She also noted that arts and crafts could be used as a resource for creating wealth to alleviate poverty.

She urged the public to desist from forced marriages, child elopement and other forms of inhuman practices which tend to dehumanize mankind.