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29.01.2021 Rejoinder

Re: The Immerging Monster Of Tribal Politics - Part 1

In The New Patriotic Party, Oti Region (indigenes Vrs Settlers Factor) Will The Party Survive?
By Isaac Kumah
Re: The Immerging Monster Of Tribal Politics - Part 1
29.01.2021 LISTEN

Appearing on Modern Ghana and the MY OTI MY NPP PLATFORM is a post captioned “THE IMMERGING MONSTER OF TRIBAL POLITICS IN THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY, OTI REGION (INDIGENES VRS SETTLERS FACTOR) WILL THE PARTY SURVIVE? PART 1” and authored by one Hajj Wan, NPP YOUTH ACTIVIST and forwarded by Victorylelabi.

The post is plainly a distortion of concerns raised by some citizens and residents of the OTI Region about public appointments and office holdings in the OTI Region.

There is really no emerging monster in the form of tribal politics between indigenes as a whole on one side and settlers as a group on the other side.

The issue of concern raised by some citizens and residents of the OTI Region is that one particular ethnic group is dominating public office appointments to the relative exclusion of other ethnic groupings whether indigenes or settlers in the OTI Region. The facts are very clear for all interested stakeholders to see.

Out of eight (8) Municipal and District Assemblies in the OTI Region, three (3) of them are headed by members of the said ethnic group.

The three (3) include the only two (2) municipalities in the OTI Region, namely Krachi East and Nkwanta South, and then Nkwanta North.

No single other ethnic groups, whether indigene or settler, heads that number of Municipal and District Assemblies.

At the Regional Level, the following public office appointments are held by members of the same ethnic group:

  1. Regional Coordinating Director/Chief Director;
  2. Regional NADMO Director;
  3. Regional Director of CHRAG;
  4. Regional Director of Births and Deaths;
  5. Regional Director of Youth Employment Agency.

There are many other equivalent and subordinate positions and public office appointments in the OTI Region dominated by members of the same ethnic group.

The phenomenon of one ethnic group dominating public offices in the OTI Region has caused wide-spread disaffection amongst the other ethnic groups in the Region with the further result of disaffection for the NPP government.

The said post also seeks to create the false impression that the NDC is more accommodating than the NPP in handling the issue of ethnicity in the OTI Region.

But the truth of the matter is that there is a wider and greater ethnic mix in the composition of Party Leadership in the NPP than in the NDC at all levels of the Party’s structure from the Constituency to the Regional Executives.

Party leadership in the NPP seems to be dominated by so-called settlers, and this has not caused or raised concerns in the OTI Region NPP.

The Parliamentary candidature in the NPP has also been dominated by the-called settlers and both indigenes and settlers have campaigned and voted for their candidates without raising any objection.

And so it cannot be said of people complaining about the increasing domination by one ethnic group in public office appointments in OTI Region under the NPP administration that they are promOTIng ethnic-based disaffection between indigenes as a group on the one hand and settlers as a group on the other hand.

Rather it is the many sub-groupings of the Guans together with other ethnic groupings such as Akans, Ewes, Chorkorses, etc., who are complaining about the painful reality of domination by one ethnic group in public sector appointments in the OTI Region.

Isaac Kumah

[email protected]

The writer is an Opinion leader and a political scientist who hails from the OTI Region.

A social contributor at modernghana.com

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