Boo (UW), Dec. 30, GNA - Mr Sahanun Mogtari, Upper West Regional Minister on Sunday called on opinion leaders in the rural areas to desist from spending so much on funerals and marriages as a display of wealth.

Instead, they should invest in the education of their children, which would not only benefit their families in future but their entire communities to acquire their developmental needs, he advised. Mr Mogtari made this call at Boo in the Lawra District when he launched an endowment fund for the construction of a library for the area.

He explained that polygamy and lavish expenditure on funerals would bring nothing positive, but poverty, deprivation and hunger to the people and that investment in education could yield positive development.

"If we can build a quality human resource base for this community, we can guarantee good future where unemployment and under-development will be done away with."

He urged the Boo Students Union to educate their colleagues against drunkenness, laziness, hard drugs and pre-marital sex, which could impede their progress.

Mr Mogtari hinted that the government would ensure that every community in the country enjoy its share of the national cake. Mr Sylvannus Ganfaa, Lawra District Chief Executive, urged students of the area to consider their unions as the mouthpiece of the people and bedrock for development.

He said although it was incumbent on the district assembly to provide basic amenities for communities, associations should collaborate with non-governmental organisations and donor agencies to ensure the development of the people to complement government efforts in the area. Mr Ganfaa said the Lawra District Assembly had provided the community with a block of three classrooms, a urinal and a KVIP toilet at a total cost of 158 million cedis while five boreholes would also be drilled in the area at a total cost of 270 million cedis.

Mr Maurice Nang, Chairman of the Students Union, said membership of the union rose from 25 students five years ago, to more than 150. He said the union would teach in various schools, plant trees and carry out clean-up exercises.