Tamale, Dec. 8, GNA - Mr. Larry Bimi, Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), on Monday expressed regret that northerners occupying leadership positions have failed to address the numerous problems confronting the north.

"It is a failure and a disappointment to our society for our inability to resolve the trivial issues that divide us as a people. "Unless we take our destiny in our own hands no one can develop the north for us."

Mr. Bimi was addressing youth groups in Dagbon at a two-day peace-building workshop jointly organised by the NCCE and Damongo-based Northern Ghana Peace Building Project.

The workshop was aimed at educating the youth including youth chiefs, youth from political parties as well as the butchers on the importance of peaceful coexistence to help them forge ahead in unity and development.

Mr. Bimi said: "We the elite of the north know where we belong and it is prudent for us to know where our children should be to help promote development in our area."

Mr Bimi said lack of unity and understanding among the northerners had brought untold hardships, including poverty and under-development to the north and called on all the stakeholders to ''put their heads together and pull the area out of its economic doldrums.''

He said the north has the potential for cotton, tomato and vegetable production but the leadership does not support farmers to produce in large quantities.

"The north is richer than the Republic of Burkina Faso but that country is today the third leading producer of cotton in the world".

On the Dagbon crisis, Mr Bimi said as much as conflict is a natural phenomenon, the people should defy any political influence and regard each other as his "brother's keeper" and help bring the situation to normalcy.

He said the government had so far spent about 25 billion cedis in its efforts at resolving conflicts in the north and that the money could have been channelled into development projects to address the poverty situation in the area.

The Reverend Father Clement Aapangnour, Coordinator of the Northern Ghana Peace Building Project, deplored the long-standing conflict in Dagbon that, he said, is now a northern issue and needs much attention by northerners themselves to resolve.

Rev. Father Aapangnour called for tolerance, understanding and unity among northerners to guarantee them the development they yearn for.