Political Communicators In Ghana Should Eschew Divisive Comments On The Dagbon Peace Process

Ghana Leadership Union (GLU) views with concern the rate at which political communicators seek to rationalize their stance on the protracted conflict in the Dagbon area, and how far we have come with the resolution process through an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

We find it distressing as politicians crave to take the credit for the status quo in the Dagbon area or discredit and downplay the laborious efforts made by successive governments for the peace process.

We wish to point out that Peace in any society comes from the individual citizens' ability to sense some kind of socio-economic justice while they pursue individual efforts for human survival. Power grabbing by Chiefs and Kings by themselves have not brought much progress to our people over the last few centuries. Making a political game out of this process should not be countenanced at all since it can be very injurious to the stability of the incipient peace being enjoyed by the Dagombas and their neighbours.

What the people need is an atmosphere of peace with some involvement of Chiefs and elected District and Town Councils that will empower the people and attract tourists and investors, as people and resources are managed for all.

A lot of developmental agenda and investments were truncated following the protracted conflict in the area where precious lives were lost including the former Yaa Naa. It is our wish that we are not confronted with these horrendous sights of daylight killings and gargantuan torture of fellow human beings in Dagbon in particular, and Ghana in General.

We are a bit jittery that unguided remarks from political communicators in the media have the propensity of flaming the embers that could incite certain miscreants in the communities to engage in violence. Studies have shown that when humans don’t have meaningful jobs and means of economic survival, it is easier to flare up genocidal instincts or what we call “do or die” in our language.

Members of the current government should not try to take all the credit for the peace process by trying to sideline the efforts played by past governments to secure peace in the Northern Region for about 17 years.

It is important to note that the current government deserves some special commendation; we can however not underestimate efforts made by The Otumfour Osei Tutu II and the Committee of Eminent chiefs, the National House of Chiefs and successive governments. The next step in our democracy for socio-economic stability will be to amend the 1992 Constitution and allow Chiefs to be permanent non-elected members of an elected town and district councils and their Chief Executives. The President has promised to have this done and we are waiting.

The peace restoration period was not an event but a process which spanned so many years. We urge political leaders to desist from comments that can stoke the fire and plunge the area into another chaos.

We hereby with this release implore politicians from both political divide not to engage in political rhetoric that seeks to take credit or discredit others in the peace process. All efforts made by everyone should be acknowledged. This should be approached as a National interest matter that will foster unity instead of approaching it with a partisan lens. A partisan approach to this will be injurious in the process of cementing the incipient peace that has eluded the people of Dagbon for decades.

Abraham Awuriki Yeboah

General Secretary GLU

Dr. Kwaku A. Danso- International President

Mr. Ofori Ampofo- Ghana President