Oh No Not Again!

The Maame Krobo incident of last Friday when youth of the town embarked on a reprisal attack on nomadic Fulanis in the town is a security breach which should be tackled with unalloyed seriousness.

Efforts to placate the residents of the town who suspect nomadic Fulanis of murdering one of their own is a challenge whose root must be found for effective resolution, failure to do which can result in a more serious security breach in the future.

Seemingly intractable, we think when handled maturely and with lots of finesse, a solution can be found.

Occasional clashes, which could be fatal and long-drawn should not be allowed to become a feature of this town. Such skirmishes are infectious, their spread to other places proving challenging and costly.

We are glad that the military have joined the Eastern Regional Police Command in restoring calm in the now restive town. Although calm, the picture of the surface does not represent the total image of the situation.

Transferring the Fulanis in the town to Donkorkrom as has been done although in the short-term, a positive response their later return to the location, can spark fresh rounds of trouble since after all, the police and military cannot maintain an indefinite patrol.

The issue of nomadic Fulanis has defied solutions over the years, a challenge which is not peculiar to us in Ghana.

Nigeria is enduring the worst form of it as clashes between the nomads and indigenes of especially, Benue and some Yoruba states in the South, have resulted in fatalities beyond what we have encountered locally.

The Afram Plains and the Agogo part of the Ashanti Region provide lush vegetation for the cattle hence the choice of these places by the nomads especially, when other places do not provide similar pasture.

For the pastoralists, political borders do not mean anything to them hence their movements across the West African sub-region at will using unapproved routes along largely porous frontiers Ghana being especially, a choice terrain. Stopping their veering into our territory is a near impossible task; what we can do is unearth security beneficial containment without bloodshed.

This is not the time to countenance such patches of security hiccups. Besides the expensive cost of maintaining security presence in restive places as we are already witnessing in Bawku, such incidences create cracks on our borders ready to be exploited by militants in neighbouring countries.

Agogo and other places have had their fair share of incidents with locals and their unwelcome guests clashing. The bone of contention has always been about the destruction of crops by cattle.

The possibility of locals attacking all Fulanis, be they nomadic herdsmen or not, is something which can lead to xenophobia, something we cannot afford now as a country.