NPP disrespects and insults Northerners

As a Ghanaian of Northern extraction born in Nima, I found the insults heaped on us by the Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa (in one of the two regions won by NPP)during the last elections as medieval and disrespectful.

Even though Nana Akomea, Director of communication of NPP came out to vehemently reject the accusations, we the listeners are not living in the land of deafs unless he wants to tell us that, we are so useless that we cannot even decipher insults from praise. The best he should have done is for him to apologise to all Ghanaians not only people from the North.

The MP for Fanteakwa, Kwabena Amankwah Asiamah made disparaging comments at Northerners on Asempa FM radio during a discussion, on the said programme he said; 'people of Northern extraction (Northerners) lack a culture of property owning which makes them very lazy; they always have to be spoon fed… All they do is to cut down trees and burn them into charcoal. Whenever you see a vehicle carrying charcoal, it is from the North. Why? They are always involved in tribal and community wars so the place is not stable; they are always on the move. Vandalism has also become a culture there. (SADA) would be a failure and waste of public funds; the people do not deserve mechanised farming. He even characterised the North as desert.

I would like the NPP to come out and apologised instead of trying to defend their uncivilised MP and tribal politics. Since the days of castle and mission schools through the first education ordinance, the Accelerated Development Plan until Nkrumah's Post-independence Educational Development plan, how many schools were built in the North and how many northerners were educated by the colonialists? Compared to the South how many social amenities were provided by the colonialists to the North? If the British had listen to the likes of Dr. K. A. Busia and Dr.JB Danquahof UP, when they rushed to UK urging the British not to Grant us independence, because we were not ready for self-government. The educational and developmental situation in the North would have been worse than what we have today, if they have had their way. The contributions of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah towards education and development in the North wouldn't have materialised, had the British respected and listened to the UP/NPP leaders. The Northerners were never spoon fed by any tribe or party in Ghana and never would it happen, in fact we are the most trusted and hardworking citizens of this great nation.

Granted the fact that education is one of the most important tool for national development, I think it becomes the responsibility of any progressive government anywhere to provide and promote sound educational policies as well as infrastructure that will help its people to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to develop their potentials. In the eyes of the NPP thisis a crime when it comes to North; their policy was and still is, the North must be left as labour market just as the colonialists used the Northern labour to develop mine and Cocoa farms in the south.

Thanks to NDC today we have university, polytechnic, more SHS, JHS and other educational institutions in the North. Our fathers, and fore-fathers might have worked in Southern mines, cocoa farms and factories but I would like NPP to look at the landscape today and tell us the truth. What have they done for the North in terms of education and other social interventions? No wonder The NPP is kicking against (SADA) and anything that brings development to the North. We also deserved developmental projects and education that the south had from the colonialists. So it is the right position for the NDC government to intervene in our predicaments. The eight (8) years of NPP administration saw zero development in the North, because as Nana Akofu Addo said Nye Akan fuo, so the North does not matter to them. No wonder Kennedy Agyepong and Kwabena Amankwah Asiamah could come on air to denigrate the dignity of Northerners.

We may be regarded as the down trodden by the NPP, but the NDC sees us as dignified and respected citizens deserving more and better interventions in our socio-economic development. We will always be with the NDC and never again should we allow such unguarded statements from NPP to go without a civilised reply. I will discuss the free education and other belated social interventions in the North in my next article.

Source
Awudu Sannie (Van Bell)