Violence: The Atomic Bomb Of The Poor And Desperate

“I RETURNED home to find my people preparing for battle.

Battle over what?
Battle over the cattle,
And of course the kingdom.
The blood still flowed and they heckled:
Where is peace, where is peace!!!” – A Zulu folklore

 
I used to think terrorism was committed only by men with long beards who speak Arab, like  Osama bin Laden, until I cast my mind back to the crazy days of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Red Army Faction (RAF).

Those who were terrorizing the Irish were not wearing long beards and yet they did worse things than the Al Qaeda did in Afghanistan. Similarly, in the beginning, I used to support those who thought people in the north were irresponsible and warlike troublemakers.

I even fully supported those who believed that people who dwell in the three northern regions were sick individuals who hold human life in disdain.  

The Konkoma/Nanumba/Dagomba wars, The Guinea Fowl war, the slaughter of the Ya Na and forty elders of Yendi and the current Bawku quagmire compounded my belief.

What is even happening today at Bunkrugu-Yunyoo and Garizhegu made me more reprehensible about the northern issue. I must confess that upon second thought I have come to understand why peace has been illusive in the northern region of Ghana.

Those of us who believed in those assertions were wrong all along. It was a mistake born out of anger when all avenues to seek peace have failed. Accept my apology for this grievous mistake.

In my spare moments of tranquility alone on my bed, I fought with my conscience in my attempt to justify the continuous fighting in the north.

You might think I am crazy to justify the madness up there in the north. But please hold your bare knuckles first. We need to ponder on the origin of the psychological forces that fuel the fighting in the north instead of blaming the protagonists.

Indeed, we need to understand that the type of violence we always hear about in the north is a pathological copy of the organism it attacks, a retrovirus created from the latter's cell. It is therefore deceptive to think that the enemy is from without.

I tried to help find a solution to the trouble in the north in my own small way and came up with an answer which, when we as a nation adopt, could bring some sanity.

The truth is that benevolence is the only way to defuse the tension in the north.  Evading our responsibility will lead to a tragedy one day. As a country, we are unknowingly committing crime against humanity in the three northern regions.

Policy makers sit in Accra, thinking the capital city is the whole of Ghana. I recently visited the north after a long absence and what I saw can simply be described in two words:  POVERTY and DESPERATION.  In fact, you can see it written on the foreheads of the young men and women you meet.

There is abstract poverty up there and we must do something about it immediately. You won't see it if you visit Tamale, Bawku, Bolgatanga, Wa,  Namdom, Navrongo  or any of the big towns in the north.

Try to visit the small villages and see things for yourself. What I saw will forever remain deeply and indelibly etched in my mind.

If you have not been to the north before to experience how young boys and girls toil to eke a living, go to Tema station in Accra or Kejetia in Kumasi and experience only one-third of what I saw.

At these places, you will see beautiful girls trying to make ends meet by being kayayees instead of enrolling in school or learning a trade.   

Take a good look at them and you will realize that they are not different from your daughter who is in school.

These beautiful damsels have no option but to migrate down south because if they stay at home they may be either married off to old men or worked like beasts of burden on the land and end up growing older than their actual ages.

There is one political party in this country which has capitalized on the calamities of the people from the north to their advantage.

This particular political party (and I know you know the party) has brainwashed the people over there for so long a time that they think what has befallen them from time immemorial can be solved by that political party and the man who founded the party alone.

They idle about under sheanut trees, waiting for nothing but trouble, and because the devil finds work for idle hands, they do not hesitate to shoot at each other anytime there is chieftaincy or political fracas.

They are simply angry with themselves because they are either unemployed or unemployable.   

The first president of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, did not play politics with the situation that the people of the north have found themselves in.

The man had the foresight. He knew if something was not done about the desperate situation in the north the whole area could explode one day. He was the first president to introduce free education up there in the north.

Osagyefo knew that when the people were educated, they could understand government policies and for that matter join in the building of the nation. Indeed, he was the first to introduce a school feeding programme in the north before ex-president Kufuor did.

In Osagyefo's case, he even provided free clothing to school children up there and built teachers' bungalows to pull them from the south.   

Yes, the Osagyefo was autocratic and did not need any votes from the north to stay in power, but he saw it fit to develop the country holistically.

The man knew if we as a nation run away from our responsibility to develop the area, the ripples will be our burden. Many years after the Osagyefo's death, slums like Sodom and Gomorrah, Agbogbloshie etc started springing up in our national capital.

Check the list of armed robbers arrested or killed last year alone and you will realize that a higher percentage of them bear northern or Muslim names.

The Osagyefo foresaw all these, hence his desire to give the people free education.

The invisible enemy of civilization is poverty, and to fight this enemy those who have enough and can afford to give freely should be benevolent enough do so.

That is why yours sincerely thinks benevolence could be the panacea. If you hire the service of a kayayee, you must as well think about her parents back home.

These innocent little girls work hard in order to save money and send some home to cater for their poor parents.  Sadly, a lot of them end up being infected with HIV/AIDS even before they go back home.

Some die through preventable diseases because they find it difficult to settle their medical bills. It is not the fault of anyone when he or she happens to be born to poor parents.

God knows why. Other than that, ask yourself why God created the fly when we do not need it in any way.

The gospel truth is that the people of the north are not at war with anybody, neither are they at war with themselves, but poverty has declared war on them. That is why we must join hands to fight this canker.   

The sad aspect of this case is that northerners who are well educated and rich businessmen and women sit in big cities down south while Rome burns.

They prefer to locate their factories and other businesses in the south rather than the north because of insecurity.

Even medical doctors who are northerners and had free education or were sponsored by poor parents from the north refuse postings to the area.

This is my story. This is my song.  In fact, this is the Gospel according to Earth Angel Gabriel. Is anyone listening?

For now, I will strike my mental delete button which will block any input that might disturb my internal attention to the singular effort in my small way of making the north a happy place to live and die in peace.

This is my mission, my historic mission. Assalaam Alekum!!!