Political, traditional power overlap, cause of conflicts

Damongo (N/R), Nov. 19, GNA - The power overlap between politicians and traditional authorities has mainly been blamed for the increasing rate of conflicts in the country, particularly in northern Ghana.

Mr Donald Amuah, a conflict resolution expert, said this power overlap had caused unending feuds orchestrated mostly by these two groups.

He was addressing the 13th Biennial Plenary Assembly of the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Pastoral Conference (TEPPCON) of the Catholic Church at Damongo in the West Gonja District on Wednesday.

TEPPCON is the Catholic Church's outfit that undertakes sensitization outreach programmes through dialogue, mediation and conflict resolution to help reduce conflicts in the three Northern Regions

Mr Amuah said: "In Ghana, the powers of political and traditional leaders overlap and they interrelate causing competition over access to traditional state structures resulting in these conflicts".

He said both political and traditional conflicts were "symbiotic and feed on each other with a linkage to historical colonial rule where traditional power was interfered by the colonial masters and had since been perpetuated since Ghana became a Republic…"

Mr. Amuah therefore urged both traditional and political leadership to stop their "selfish interest" and fight for the collective interest as a sure way of minimising conflicts.

The Most Reverend Philip Naameh, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale and President of TEPPCON, said the Catholic Church had since the inception of TEPPCON, taken some initiatives to promote peace, unity and self-reliance.

He said human security was at the centre of the Church's evangelism through the promotion of the welfare of the people and their spiritual upliftment.

Mr Stephen Sumani Nayina, the Northern Regional Minister, in a speech read for him expressed the government's appreciation and gratitude to the leadership of the Catholic Church in Ghana for its contribution to national development.

He appealed to the church, as a partner in development, to continue to support the government in areas of education, health, agriculture and the proposed Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).

GNA