Internecine violence in Northern Ghana Must Stop!!!

Every society and every nation’s development rest on peace and stability which also require law and order that requires ALL citizens to be subject to the laws of the land and obey them. Any society whose citizens resort to disrespect and disregard for law and order and the laws of the society are bound to erupt in violence and chaos. That society is bound to be underdeveloped for a long time.

Ghana is well respected in Africa and the rest of the world as relatively stable with its citizens regarded as “peace-loving”. In the West African Sub-Region, Ghana is seen as an oasis or island of peace within a desert and sea of violence and civil wars. Politically, citizens of Ghana have come a long way from the early and mid-1950s when we displayed our political differences by inflicting violence on each other. The country has also emerged from a long period of relative social and political madness when restless, bored and renegade soldiers could just march to the only broadcasting station, take over control of the airwaves and command every citizen to obey them. At least since 1992, sixteen years ago, Ghana has proved that it has matured politically and socially prepared to chart a new and civilized course of governance, however imperfect, called “democracy”. This system requires citizens to freely choose their rulers. It also requires that this selection process of leaders…and government…should be done without anyone resorting to the use of violence and intimidation.

Ghanaians have been trying, to a very large extent, to keep to these principles. In the process, the country has been enjoying relative peace and stability. This situation and process requires every citizen, groups (ethnic, religious or civil) to use the generally-agreed principles and processes of dispute settlement which means that all citizens must allow the structures in society that are responsible for conflict-resolution to take charge of all disputes that arise between citizens, individually or collectively. To a very large extent, most Ghanaian citizens have been abiding by these tenets of the application and resort to the rule of law in conflict resolution which all civilized societies do.

There is however a section of the Ghanaian population that have constantly threatened the peace and stability of the Nation. This group of people have decided that they have no regard for normal; civilized behavior, no respect for the rule of law, no respect for the legal structures in society that are charged with conflict resolution in the country. They have arrogated unto themselves the underserving right to destroy life and property whenever they disagree with each other.

I am pointedly referring to certain ethnic groups and individuals in some parts of the Northern Regions of Ghana where the citizens have made it their “normal” behaviour and stock-in-trade to take the law into their own hands and settle personal and inter or intra-group disputes according to their own very crude and senseless way of understanding human relations. I am mincing no words here: Over the past twenty years certain ethnic groups in some parts of the Northern Regions of Ghana have been behaving as if they just emerged from the Stone Age. In the late 1980s through the early 1990s, two ethnic groups in the Northern Regions, the Kokomba and Nanumba decided to kill themselves and anyone else they could find, destroy properties including burning down houses, livestock and farms because they did not agree with each other over the ownership of lands and property. They cared less or did not have any regard for law and order or the existing conflict-resolution structures in Ghanaian society. A lot of lives and property were lost to the ensuing violence. A lot of the society’s resources including security personnel were deployed into those areas for many years to keep the peace and to prevent the warring factions from not only destroying each other but preventing them from disrupting the peace, stability, law and order in Ghanaian society. That dispute is still simmering. A number of years ago (around 2001 and 2002), two factions of the same family in another part of the Northern Region, the Abudus and Andanis of one Royal family decided to kill each other and threaten the peace, stability and development of the region and the entire country in their own crude way of settling a family kingship dispute. The result was that many people were killed, including the beheading of the then reigning King, the total destruction of life and property. A large contingent of security personnel and resources were deployed to this area. Tension remains high to this day in the area.

Over the past two years some faction in another part of the Northern Regions, this time in the Municipality of Bawku, have been killing each other and destroying property. Again a large number of security personnel and resources of the country have been deployed to the area to keep the “peace”. As I write, in September 2008, violence has erupted in the Tamale and Gushiegu sectors of the Northern Region. People are being killed and property is being destroyed at an alarming rate.

In all the areas that trouble have erupted, the government tries a misguided policy of appeasement by rebuilding destroyed houses, roads and structures, sending food and clothing to the affected people. The wrong message that some of these people have got from the government is that “violence pays”. So frequently they start killing themselves, but do not forget in the process to burn down houses. The government’s response is predictable: send security personnel, declare curfews but in the process send food, clothing and rebuild the destroyed houses and other structures. To me this is a misguided policy of the highest order that has the effect of only encouraging further violence. I challenge any Ghanaian, anyone, to tell me where in this modern age should people be allowed to engage in this Stone Age behavior and be “rewarded” for their “efforts” at killing and destruction. ALL Ghanaians, including the government, civil society and especially citizens of those violent-prone parts of the country should be given the clear message that violence does not pay. Violence, the kind of which they have been displaying up North in Ghana, has no place in modern civilized society. If this message is forcefully drummed into their ears, if they are denied the rebuilding of destroyed homes and structures, if they are denied other “benefits” that they have been receiving after the violent and destruction sessions, may be they will sit up and realize that this kind of behaviour has no place in modern-day society.

Enough of this madness!! It is simply not acceptable!!

By: Dr. Michael Baffoe, Winnipeg-MB

Dr. Michael Baffoe is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada