Former Vo-Naa Insulted Us That We're 'Jangbara', We Don't Want Him As Our Chief—Nanton Residents

The elders and Youth of Nanton in the Nanton Traditional Area of the Northern Region has indicated that their rejection of Mr. M.B. Bawa, former Vo-Naa and Northern Regional Representative of the National Council of Elders as their Chief for the area still holds.

The residents on Monday, August 19, 2019 led by the Chief Linguist Mba Zakari Osman at a press conference stated that the people in the Nanton Traditional area do not like Mr. Bawa (Ya-Naa's candidate for the area) and so will never allow him or anyone calling for Him to be made their Chief.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, it will interest you to know that when Mr. Bawaw as chief of Kpano, he vilified, castigated, and hated the people of Nanton so much. He issued open aspersions that we, the chiefs and people of Nanton are “jangbara”,i.e., we are"mice".If any person from Nanton entered Kpano, Mr. Bawa, then Kpano Naa ordered that the person be asked to leave Kpano because he didn't want “jangbara” in his land. This made us furious against him and to believe he can never be our Nanton Naa. Mr.Bawa even refused to participate in the regent installation when the late Nanton Naa Alhassan Sulemana passed on. Our tradition is clear on this; if you don't participate in a funeral during regent installation you cant turn around to expect to be chief of the area you rejected. The gods won't allow you," he stated.

Mr. Anyass explained that, according to the rules and regulations governing the 'Dagban Nam' it is wrong for a member of the Andani family to be made chief of Nanton when a member from same family already occupies Savulugu.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, it would be recalled that, on page 41 of the 1987 Reconciliation Committee Agreement, during one of the meetings held on Saturday, the 11th of July 1987 at Kamina Barracks Officers Mess, Tamale, it was disclosed during the deliberation on sharing of divisional skins that Nanton skin was to be given to an Abudu Royal Chief. This was fiercely resisted by Andani Royal Family who argued that an Abudu Royal chief already occupies Savelugu and, if Nanton is added to Abudus, they would be very powerful in Western Dagbon. Today, the Savelugu skin is occupied by our brother N-yab Yoo Naa Abdulai Yakubu Andani of the Andani Royal Family, yet N’dan Ya-Na wants to make them (Andanis) very powerful in Western Dagbon by inskinning Mr. Bawa to Nanton? If it was wrong as argued by the Andani Royal Family at that time, why should it be right today?" he emphasised.

According to him, it is worrying that some people link Naa Haruna Tia Sulemana to the ruling party, so he thinks he has the political backing to takeover Nanton.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is also petty to link our Nanton Naa Haruna Sulemana to the NPP government as if it is the NPP government which in skinned our Nanton Naa as our chief. People who do this should be reminded that what has happened or is happening in Nanton is not new in Dagbon. It happened under Ya-Naa Mahama II (father of current Ya-Naa) in 1946, it happened under Na-Yakubu Andani between 1980 to 2000, it happened under then Regent Kampakuya Naa between 2008 to 2016 and it is happening under current Ya-Naa. We the people of Nanton are not looking for any power or support from any politician to resist oppressors rule, " Mr Anyass stressed.

He advised politicians to stay away from the Nanton chieftaincy issues since Traditional matters and political issues are like Petro and fire.

He blamed the Tamale North Constituency lawmaker Hon. Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini for his recent comments on the Nanton chieftaincy issues on TV3 Network which could ignite more tension in the area.

"No wonder politicians like MP for Tamale North, Honorable Alhassan Suhuyini, was on TV3 morning show biting on it withal speed of conjectures and twistings. Couldn't Hon. Suhiyini found out from his constituency, which is a few miles from Nanton, whether there was actually tension in Nanton? In any case, is he the only politician who is from a kingdom which has chieftaincy issues? Dagbon has come far and it is about time politicians like him stopped using us for political gains.

Mr. Anyass noted that Nanton is and will continue to be peaceful under their preferred candidate (Tia Sulemana) as Nanton-Naa.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, while we the people of Nanton Traditional Area were enjoying peace and celebrating the Eid festival with remarkable traditional dances at the Palace of our Nanton Naa Tia Sulemana Haruna, some unscrupulous people outside Nanton Traditional Area chose to mislead Ghanaians. We were shocked that a palpable lie of that magnitude, with the heading "Tension mounts in Nanton as Chiefs petition President", could be fed to the media. We are aware this was done by syndicates shielding behind those news agencies to court public interest for their political and parochial gains. We are also fully aware that these confliprenuers were targeting to use“fear and panic" strategy to tint Nanton Traditional Area with conflict and by extent make Dagbon the headline of newspapers with conflict again"

The Nanton traditional area has been under tension since the performance of the late Nanton-Naa's funeral.

After the late Nanton-Naa Alhassan Sulemana's funeral, the former chief of Voggu, Mahama B. Bawa was enskinned as Nanton-Naa by the overlord of Dagbon Ya-Naa Mahama Abubakari (II) but was fiercely resisted by Chiefs and people in the area.

This gave way for the Regent of Zoosali, Tia Haruna Sulemana who also showed interest in the Nanton Chieftaincy tookover the area preventing Mr. Bawa from entering the place.