Subtle Ethnic Cleansing In Ghana?

Bawku is still restive and it is worrying. A couple of days ago, representatives of the Mamprugu Youth Association (MAYA) hosted a press conference in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital, and the allegations they levelled against the state are telling.

The most outstanding and portentous of the allegations was the dreaded 'ethnic cleansing' aberration which Ghana has been spared over the years. They claim this is what is happening to Mamprugu youth and the crime is being perpetrated by the state through the police.

Shortly after the press conference, a prominent person among the conveners was picked up and is currently in detention in Accra.

His friends, family and members of the Mamprugu ethnic grouping fear that he might be 'murdered' the way other youth from that part of the country have been.

The headline which carries this commentary sounds scary, but that is the summary of the press conference of the concerned Mamprugu youth.

Some political wounds are difficult to heal, and that is what the Bawku debacle is turning out to be, the circumstances underpinning it worsening the situation.

This is an accusation which has serious national security implication and so cannot be swept under the carpet.

The implications of the accusation transcends this regime and would haunt subsequent governments until a permanent solution is found for it.

Some political actors from one of the feuding ethnic groupings who hold top government positions are alleged to have a hand in the dangerous trend being played out.

The Mamprugu youth have explained that there is a systematic project of eliminating persons from the Mamprugu ethnic grouping who rear their heads by speaking to the conflict. Unfolding what they regard as evidence for their claims makes for compelling action by the authorities. And who else than the President and Commander-in-Chief can give this fiat.

Calling for such a presidential intervention through the empanelling of an independent commission of enquiry into the allegations with clear terms of reference is the appropriate step to take under the circumstances.

That conflicts retard progress is a truism, especially in a country which 67 years after independence is still harbouring infrastructural deficits, is an indisputable assertion.

So much funds are being expended in maintaining the peace in Bawku, and even then this goal remains fragile, explosive and seemingly unreachable.

The sparks needed to set the conflict zone ablaze once more should be denied the oxygen being provided remotely by some politicians.

These politicians and others are not learning from the bountiful lessons of history; they continue to fan the fires of this longstanding conflict, unmindful of the implications of a possible conflagration thereof, uncontrollable and with far-reaching consequences.

Silence from the Presidency on the need for an enquiry cannot be an option.