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06.02.2007 General News

Npp must grow up in Dagbon

06.02.2007 LISTEN
By Wayo Seini

I have argued elsewhere that all Dagombas, particularly the royals, are very closely related. I have also pointed out elsewhere that there is a very thin dividing line between the so-called Abudus and Andanis, visible only to selfish and egoistic politicians who want to promote their political agenda and ambitions.

It is such politicians who have used their magnifying glasses to magnify the thin dividing line between the two closely related royal families. My concern here is to urge my party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to realise that my assertion of Dagombas is a reality and that the party should open its doors wide to every citizen of Dagbon who wishes to join it. It is only this open door policy that will grow the party in Dagbon.

This is not the first time that I am asking the party to pursue policies that will grow the Danquah/Busia tradition in Dagbon. In the past, I had written two memoranda on this same issue. My two memos on the issue were not, however, meant for public consumption.

My first memorandum on the Dagbon issue was in 1979 for the Popular Front Party's (PFP"s) presidential candidate, Victor Owusu, at his request. He asked me to do so in my capacity as the member of the PFP Policy and Research Committee in-charge of the Northern and Upper Regions at that time.

Then I pointed out to him the closeness of the two royal families in Dagbon and that the party should try as much as possible to pursue policies that would bring the two royal families even much more closer together.

The second memorandum I wrote on the Dagbon issue was in the form of a protest note to the General Secretary in 1992 after the impression had been created that as a member of the Andani Royal family it was 'risky' for me to occupy certain positions in the party since the Abudus were perceived to be in the majority in Dagbon and that could cost the New Patriotic Party (NPP) the majority vote in Dagbon.

In that memorandum I again stressed the closeness of the two families and disputed the assertion that the Abudus were in the majority in Dagbon. I then advised the party to build bridges between the two royal families since as a national party it will be suicidal for the NPP to take sides in any local issue.

Almost fifteen years later I am of the firm belief that my advice on both occasions is still valid. I don't think anybody with the minimum of analytical mind will argue with the fact that the NPP is very weak in Dagbon, in particular, and in the North in general.

If we examine the results of the 2004 general elections, and indeed other elections since 1992, the weakness of the NPP in Dagbon becomes very clear. Of the twelve Dagomba seats, the NPP won only two, Yendi and Gushiegu in 2004.

In Gushiegu's case, the personal popularity of Lady Tani was never in doubt having performed creditably as a District Chief Executive in the previous four years. In the previous elections NPP won only the Yendi seat in Dagbon.

In Yendi's case we have the late Alhaji Shaani Mahama to thank for building the constituency into an impregnable fortress for the Danquah/Busia tradition through his open interaction with everybody in 1969 and 1979 when he was the Progress Party and PFP parliamentary candidate, respectively, for the constituency and in 1992 to 1996 when he was around to help when he was not even a candidate.

What is really worrying is the fact that the influence of the Danquah/Busia tradition and its current party (NPP) seems to be diminishing in Dagbon. The party has never won in the Tolon constituency since 1992, and yet this used to be our number one stronghold even before Yendi.

Added to this is the fact that the gap between the party's vote and that of the main opposition National Democratic Congress seems to be widening in most constituencies in Dagbon. Clearly, the party has remained stunted in growth. This implies that the NPP must now go for Plan B to grow up the party in Dagbon.

Plan B for the NPP means going back to the advice I gave to Mr Victor Owusu in 1979 and to the party in 1992. The party must make it a policy to open its doors to all Dagombas and to put up a behaviour that practically demonstrates that they mean business.

By "they”, I mean the top hierarchy of the party including His Excellency the President, the National Executive Members and all leading members of the party. By their utterances they shall be judged by many well meaning Dagombas who are flexible and intelligent enough to know between right and wrong.

And by the behaviour of the Dagombas who are already in the party it shall be judged whether they want the party to grow in Dagbon or remain as it is.

There are many utterances by leading members of the party that do not make our party attractive to many in Dagbon. I need not go into details on this but I will cite just one example.

Quite a number of leading members, sometimes cabinet ministers, have intimated that for all the conflicts in the North nobody had been arrested and see no reason why it should be different in the current cases in Yendi.

Such utterances really baffles me a lot and gives me the impression that those who make them do not even understand the fundamental philosophy and beliefs of the Danquah/Busia tradition, one of which is our total commitment to the rule of law.

This means that those who commit crimes in society must be subjected to the rule of law. If past governments did not arrest culprits for breaching the peace, then they simply did not believe in what we believe in and we cannot use their past inaction as an alibi for our own inaction.

I particularly urge all Dagomba office holders in the NPP government to remember that politics is about numbers. They should therefore emulate the good examples of the late Alhaji Shani Mahama and Honourable Tani to help the party grow in Dagbon. Alhaji Shani, as Deputy Minister for Agriculture never discriminated against anybody on the basis of local divisions.

Indeed, he endeared himself to most rice farmers in the North, and Dagbon in particular, when he assisted most of them to establish themselves in rice farming. So far as I am concerned, Alhaji Shani Mahama became the unrecognised and unsung hero for Ghana's achievement of self-sufficiency in rice production in a few years after he and the Progress Party were thrown out of government.

Prof. Busia always advised that Ghanaians should be each others “brother's keeper” which implies that we should do good to each other no matter what our differences are. In any case where lies our confidence, pride and dignity if our party is in power and our contribution to that power, in terms of votes and parliamentary seats, is minimal?

On my part, I have followed parties of the Danquah/Busia tradition from my childhood, principally because at an early age I took Prof K A Busia as my inspirational role model to the extent that at a certain stage people were referring to me as young Busia.

It has always been my wish that a party representing the tradition at any time must grow from strength to strength throughout the country, and more so in my own backyard, Dagbon.

For the party to grow, those of us already in it must welcome new comers with open hands and mind. I have survived in the Danquah/Busia tradition long enough to happily welcome many close friends, who previously belonged to other political traditions, into political parties of our tradition. Before then I was, to the best of my knowledge, the only young Dagomba graduate in the Progress Party from 1969 to 1972.

As a national party, we must not loose sight of the fact that Dagbon is such an important part of Ghana that no political party can afford to ignore it in a multi-party democracy. Dagombas are spread all over the country and beyond.

Their influence in the fortunes of a political party can never be underestimated. Besides, their stand on many social and political issues tends to influence many other friends and identifiable groups.

For many other reasons that time and space will not permit me to state here, the NPP must make every effort to grow up in Dagbon. The potential for that growth is enormous and every effort must be made to exploit it.

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