The Chiefs and people of Zabzugu in the northern region have commended the DCE for the area Hon Ahmed Iddrisu Abubakari, also known as Adakwa, for his latest initiative to ensure peace and harmony among the people in the district.
The DCE for the area embarked on a five-day peace to sustenance tour in over 25 communities in the Zabzugu district including Tuvugu, Lanjeli, Nagbumba, Subruni, Maa, Finaayili, Laabanga, Nyemalga, Jebundo, Tasundo, Mbebodo, Kukuokpanga number 1 and 2 and Sabare number 1 and 2.
Purpose of the tour
The tour, according to Hon Ahmed Abubakari will ensure peaceful coexistence among the Dagombas and Konkombas, which are the major tribes in the Zabzugu district.
The tour was also to eject imminent conflicts and sustain peace where the residents of the various communities received the DCE’s message in good fate as some contributors were compelled to revisit the past and vowed never to engage in any form of conflicts in the area as they recount, their loses and other effects of past clashes.
It was an overwhelming joy for the residents when the DCE mentioned that two weeks back, a good number of Communities within his traditional area, requested electrification during the Vice President’s campaign tour last year, which are being worked on.
The communities include Bagmani, Nagbumba, Subruni, Maa, Finaayili, Laabanga, Nyemalga, Jebundo, Mbebodo, Kukuokpanga1, Kukuokpanga 2, Dazulgbini and Binyimkumdo as siting and planting of poles are concurrently going on in some of them, while others are yet to begin.
Background
It is no mean a fact that Northern Ghana lags behind in all aspects of human development relative to Southern Ghana. By Northern Ghana, I refer to the five administrative regions of Northern region, Upper East region, Upper West region, North East Region and the Savannah region. Comparatively, these three administrative regions are the least developed as indicated by all indicators of human development: there is the presence of high illiteracy rate, poverty level is still endemic, road infrastructure is poor and deplorable, telephone and postal services is virtually absent in major towns, poorly equipped health centers and hospitals, limited or absence of potable water supply etc.
Many factors are always catalogued as the causes of the slow development of Northern Ghana relative to Southern Ghana. Prominently listed are the ecology and geography of the area, a deliberate attempt by the colonial administration to let the North remain a reservoir for the recruitment of unskilled labour to work on cash crop farms and industries in the then Colony and Ashanti, inadequate or absence of mineral deposits and other cash crops like cocoa and some socio-cultural practices as the causes of the underdevelopment of Northern Ghana. However, one factor that receives little or no attention but is a major contributory factor to the slow development of Northern Ghana is ‘’The Incidence of Conflicts’’.
Though Ghana has enjoyed some relative peace since time immemorial, pockets of violence, threats and tensions have been recorded in some towns and villages.
Northern Ghana in particular has witnessed several protracted conflicts. These conflicts are in the area of ownership of land, quest for autonomy by some tribes, chieftaincy, location of a district capital or a government project etc. According to Brukum in his work ‘’Ethnic Conflicts in Northern Ghana, 1980-1999: An Appraisal, the Northern region of Ghana alone has had over 20 ethnic conflicts since 1980. In fact, there is no gainsaying that the whole of Northern Ghana is engulfed with conflicts.
In the Northern region, for instance, records have been taken of the 1994 ‘’Guinea Fowl war’’ fought between the Konkombas on one side against the Nanumba, Gonja and Dagomba ethnic groups, the 1981 ‘’Pito War’’ between the Nanumba and Konkomba, the 1994 Wasipe- Yazori chieftaincy problem, the 1980s Gonja- Vagla Tuna conflict, the Bimbilla skin affairs, the Buipe chieftaincy affair, the Dagbon crisis, the several clashes between the Bimobas and Konkombas, the 1991 Nawuri- Gonja war and the recent clashes between the Tampulmas and the Gonjas in the Wasipe traditional area.
In the Upper East region, conflict situations such as the notorious Bawku chieftaincy affair, Mirigu- Kandinga chieftaincy affair, dispute over the allocation of the capital of the newly created Talensi/Nabdam district, Winkogo and Kalbeo land- boundary dispute, Chuchuliga chieftaincy Affair and so on have been recorded. The Upper West region has also recorded conflicts such as the Wa paramountcy skin affair, the Kpaliwogu chieftaincy affairs, the Sankana chieftaincy affair, Wallembelle skin affair etc. It is important to note that some of these conflicts were devoid of violence and destruction but caused tensions, mistrust and polarization between or among the feuding factions. However, many of them were violent, bloody, destructive and deadly.
Admittedly, these conflicts have had damaging repercussions on the development of the area thereby retrogressing the development of Northern Ghana. Socio-economically, conflicts retarded economic activities thereby deepening the poverty levels in Northern Ghana.
In the numerous violent conflicts that engulfed Northern Ghana the major war strategy of the combatants involves the destruction of farms and buildings of the opponents.
A paper for the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity dated February 2017 by Julia Johnson, doctoral research student at the University of Oxford stated that in the 1994 Guinea Fowl war, 441 villages were destroyed, 178,000 people displaced and at least 2, 000 people lost their lives. In their work, ‘’The Cost of Inter-Ethnic Conflicts in Ghana’s Northern Region: The Case of Nawuri-Gonja Conflicts’’, Emmanuel Debrah et al stated that evaluation of the losses from the Nawuri- Gonja war in monetary terms has been estimated to be a whopping six hundred thousand Ghana Cedis, the equivalent of three hundred thousand dollars, using the 1994 exchange rate.
That same report stated that by the close of 1995 the Guinea Fowl War had claimed over 2,000 lives, displaced 230,000 people and over 500 villages were destroyed.
To quell the conflicts, the central government mostly imposed curfews and in severe circumstances, declared a state of emergency in those areas. On February 10, 1994, the government of Ghana issued a State of Emergency in seven districts of the Northern region (Yendi, Nanumba North and South, Gushiegu/Karaga, Saboba/Chereponi, East Gonja, Zabzugu/ Tatale and the town of Tamale) when the Guinea Fowl was intense.
Within this period of the State of Emergency which lasted for almost four years, all activities and movements of humans no matter the time was curtailed. It was further extended for a month on July 8, 1994. The government also imposed curfew in Bawku, Tamale, Buipe, Bimbilla, and Gushiegu and other areas of the North when violent conflicts erupted. Within these periods, businesses collapsed and profit margins were reduced thereby intensifying the poverty levels and underdevelopment of Northern Ghana.
Conclusion
But for this initiative by Hon. Ahmed Abubakari, if other MMDCEs emulate that, conflicts will be a history in the northern region.
By: Prince Kwame Tamakloe/ Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
