Northern Ghana Must Wake Up

Last weekend (7th and 8th July 2007), most right thinking Northerners held their hearts in their mouths as yet another chieftaincy time-bomb ticked breathtakingly close to explosion. The sensational reports carried by the media, especially in Accra, gave the impression that the whole of northern Ghana was on fire; and quite justifiably so. Perhaps the media took a cue from the events of 2001 in Dagbon, when a seemingly innocuous skirmish caught the whole nation napping with that major calamity.

Thank God that the situation was brought under control. But it has to be said, and I could not agree with Alhaji Haruna Atta more when he said some where last year that, it is about time we northerners named and shamed ourselves out of this totally unacceptable notoriety of turning every little misunderstanding into daggers-drawn conflicts.

As a northerner and a native of the Central Gonja District, I am thoroughly ashamed of the behaviour of those random riff-raffs who went about beating war drums and threatening mayhem in the name of upholding traditional and/or royal rights during last weekend.

Yes, we understand that if one’s royal linage is ‘troubled’, the one has every right to seek redress. However, there are ways of going about it in a manner that is decent, dignified and above all, legal. To assume responsibility for enforcing such rights with such stupid bravado, and thereby endanger the lives and comfort of people already worn out by decades of squalor and want is, to be thoroughly polite, annoying.

Some of us are getting uneasy that Gonjaland is gradually climbing to an unenviable place in the list of Chieftaincy conflict-prone areas. It is regrettable that, for instance nearly two years after the late Buipewura Chinchanko II joined his ancestors, the Buipe skin remains unoccupied. Even though the protagonists in the Buipe Chieftaincy contest have so far handled the matter through the legal system, it is not a situation some of us are prepared to encourage. As the Buipe Skin is one of the most important skins in Gonjaland, our hearts ache rather badly every time we remember that there is misunderstanding over it.

I have said as far back as April 2004 in an article, generously published in the ADM titled: “Daboya must ensure peaceful succession”, that Gonjaland tends to take its peaceful successions for granted, and that if care was not taken and moves initiated to codify our succession processes and procedures, one day we were all going to be caught napping. Three years on, here we are: Buipe is still vacant after nearly two years and Kawsawgu is in the grip of fear.

A major factor creeping into the Gonja Traditional system that has to be watched is the growing influence of our chief’s linguists; the assumed roles of so-called Princes; and the neglect of the traditional roles played by the chief’s council of elders. Suddenly the chiefs’ sons have assumed certain roles which hitherto were unknown to Gonjaland. It must be emphasised that, in Gonjaland there is no legal recognition for a regent. In Gonjaland tradition the chief’s son is just that: the chief’s son. He has no role whatsoever in the palace. He is not even sent on royal errands. That role is reserved for the Linguist. But today in most of our major palaces, the chiefs’ children and so-called chiefs’ linguists have assumed roles as advisors to the chief, making interventions in cases, the facts of which they know next to nothing about.

Consequently, the trust and confidence that made the chief’s palace the last bastion of justice and fairness has been dealt a fatal blow. No wonder therefore, that a number of chieftaincy contests now end up in the high courts and house of chiefs, in some cases, in the ‘jungle’ too.

After we have humiliated ourselves, we expect people to write good stuff about us. Hell no! In a democracy you get what you negotiate for, not what you deserve. And in our case, by our willingness to point guns at each other in the name of chieftaincy, we have truly negotiated for humiliation. So we have to be prepared for the shame that comes with it. If you give your dog a bad name, you can bet on a legion of volunteers who will happily hung it for you. Let’s wake up!