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18.01.2018 Petitions

Youth Of Kpandai petition for the inclusion Of Kpandai Distric in the 'Proposed Oti Region'

Proposed Oti RegionProposed Oti Region
18.01.2018 LISTEN

PETITION TO INCLUDE THE KPANDAI DISTRICT IN THE OTI REGION-THE VOICE OF THE YOUTH AND PEOPLE OF KPANDAI

We, the youth, together with the Chiefs and People of the Kpandai District in the Northern Region of Ghana extol the noble decision of the government to create additional regions in Ghana to help bolster development. We acknowledge the effort of His Excellency, Nana Addo-Danquah Akuffo Addo and the government at accelerating development in every nook and cranny of our country. May God bless these efforts.

As a people yearning for development as in every other part of the country, we are determined to be “citizens, responsible citizens and not spectators”. In pursuant to this, we wish to affirm our support for the petition presented to the president by the Chiefs and Elders in the Kpandai District. Our Chiefs and Elders did a very thorough consultation with all communities in the districts and it is the resolution of the people to be part of the Oti Region. Being in any of the regions to emerge from the division of the Northern Region would not be in the interest of the people neither would it augur well for an accelerated development. Counting on your esteemed sense of judgment, we say Kpandai for the Oti region and no other Region is an option.

This appeal is informed by our submission of the followings facts;

Historical Facts
Historically, the ties between Kpandai (often referred to as Alfai in historical accounts) and the proposed Oti region pre-dates the colonial era. The Nawuri and Nchumuru of the Kpandai District lived as political allies with Krachi, the Achode, Adele and Ntrubo of the Nkwanta District, Buem of Jasikan District and Nkonya of the Biakoye District. Administratively, Kpandai (Alfai) was part of the Kete-Krachi province until 1932 (see Colonial Report of British Togoland of 1932, p. 10). The addition of Kpandai to the East Gonja and the Northern Territories was a historical incongruity created by the British. The creation of the Oti Region offers the opportunity for this anomaly to be corrected. Our call therefore is in order and appropriate.

Administrative issues
It would be administratively more prudent to include Kpandai in the Oti region than any other region. The distance between Kpandai and Yendi, the likely capital of the proposed Eastern Corridor Region is approximately 122km. for the proposed Gonjaland region, the distance from Kpandai to Damango or Buipe is 301km and 280km respectively. This is a long distance to traverse in an area where the roads are deplorable and sometimes impassable during the rainy season. Comparatively, Kpandai District is closer to Nkwanta, Kete-Krachi and Dambai one of which is the possible capital of the Oti Region. In fact, the distance between Kpandai and Nkwanta is 112km, Krachi (87km) and Dambai (68km).

Economic expediency
Economically, both the people of Kpandai and the proposed Oti region are farmers who mainly cultivate yam, guinea corn, maize, rice and cassava. The Dambai Market had been the center where we sell our farm produce. Being within the same agro-ecological zone, Oti region would provide us with the opportunity to develop strong agro based industries culminating into employment opportunities and improved livelihoods. We trade goods and services with Dambai, Nkwanta, Kpassa, and Kete-Krachi more than we do with any other part of the country. It is therefore prudent to be under one Regional Coordinating Council to help reinforce this trade ties between our towns.

Peace, security and development
Security wise, we strongly prescribe the inclusion of the Kpandai District to the Oti Region as a natural solution to the age-long conflict between Nawuri and Nchumuru on one side and our Gonja brothers on the other side. We are a peace loving people and therefore ascribe to this suggestion as the most peaceful way of dealing with this conflict that bedeviled our land since the Germans and British attempted to illegally enstool chiefs and lord them over our people in pursuant to their colonial interests. As peace loving people, we are ready to cooperate with the state and all relevant institutions as far as this exercise is concerned. We however wish to state emphatically that any attempt to put Kpandai district in any of the regions that could emerge from the division of the northern region would not be in our interest because such a decision would have the tendency to perpetuate the conflict situation in the area.

Socio-cultural considerations
We wish to emphasize that we have the same cultural orientation as the Krachi, Ntrubo, Achode, Buem, Nkonya and other Guan groups of the proposed Oti region. The Nawuri and Nchumuru bear a different cultural orientation from other ethnic groups in the Northern Region. In every particular of culture, deportment and custom, kpandai is well identified with the proposed Oti region than any other part of the country. We enstool our chiefs just as it is done among the various groups of the proposed Oti Region. The modes of ascension to our ancestral stools are the same. We have the same land tenure system. Linguistically, we speak Guan (Nawuri and Nchumuru dialects) just as it is spoken in Krachi East and West, Nchumuru, Buem, Biakoye, Nkwanta North and South Districts. We are the only people in the Northern Region identified with this form of culture. Therefore our stay in the Northern Region or any of the regions that could emerge from its division is an incompatible graft. Permit us to infer that these differences in culture, deportment and custom had been one of the causes of conflicts that ravaged Kpandai in the late 1980s and early 90s. The fact is that the underlying factors of these conflicts remain unsolved. We believe and highly recommend carving Kpandai into the proposed Oti region as a natural solution to this unfortunate situation.

With the above submission among many other considerations, it is obvious that administratively, economically, culturally and socio-politically the people of Kpandai are well identified with the proposed Oti Region than any other existing or proposed administrative region of Ghana.

We have no reason to doubt your ability to execute your mandate perfectly and grant our plea.

Thank you.
………………
(Chairman, Concerned Kpandai Youth for Accelerated Development)

Yane Boarisa
Contact: 0542643036
E-mail: [email protected]
............................
(Secretary, Concerned Kpandai Youth for Accelerated Development).

Anenya
Contact: 0245146243
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

Hassan Nankwe
Hassan Nankwe

Northern/Oti Region CorrespondentPage: NankweHassan

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