Thousands of Dagbon youth are set to embark on a peaceful street procession in the coming weeks to declare support for the Dagbon Traditional Council’s decision to reject the inclusion of the chereponi district to the proposed North East Region.
The protest is being organized and coordinated by a leadership tink tank in the region, Dagbon Centre for Leadership and Development (DCLD), who said it was concerned by government’s unfazed appearance to the decision by the Dagbon chiefs, the owners of the chereponi area.
The demonstration, scheduled on Thursday, 08 November, would be staged concurrently on the streets of Tamale and Chereponi.
The decision for the protest was arrived at an emergency meeting held by the leadership tink tank last Wednesday. The meeting was attended by several youth groups in the traditional area.
The background to this protest is that, following this government’s decision to create new regions, two regions were earmarked to be split out from the current Northern Region – The savanna region as requested by the chiefs and people of the Gonjaland and North East Region for the Mamprusis.
Following an inquiry commission’s report on the creation of the regions, the ministry in charge of regional reorganization and development came out with proposed maps for the new regions.
The savanna Region would have six districts instead of the seven under its traditional control. The areas include; West Gonja (Damongo), East Gonja (Salaga), Central Gonja (Buipe&Yapei), North Gonja (Daboya&Lingbinsi), Bole Bomboi (Bole), Sawla Tuna Kalba (Sawla).
The commission excluded the Kpandai district, an area which actually has been embroiled in a longstanding chieftaincy dispute between the Gonjas and Nchumurus/Nawuris.
For more than two decades now, traditional system has been unstable in the area since a full blown ethic conflict broke out over allodial land rights between the tribes in 1991.
In fact, the Nchumurus and Nawuris who are the majority in the district issued copious statements asking the inquiry commission not to include the district to the proposed Savanna Region but proposed to join the yet to be created Oti Region. They also said they preferred to be left in the Northern Region than to join to the proposed Savanna.
The overlord of the Gonja Traditional Area has not protested the removal of the Kpandai district when the map of the proposed Savanna Region was released by an the sector ministry, despite having earlier warned that no land for the Gonjas will be ceded in the regional partitioning. Multiple ethnic minorities across the Gonjaland, from Daboya to Bamboi, had also announced intents to depart the Savanna Region.
In the case of North East Region, the Mamprusis presented six districts known to be under their jurisdictions. The districts are, West Mamprusi (Walewale), East Mamprusi (Nalerigu/Gambaga), Bunkprugu, Yunyoo and Mamprugu Moiduri.
Despite the entire traditional area having been blessed with large quantities of untapped mineral resources and fertile lands, persisted chieftaincy conflicts in Bunkprugu, land disputes in Nakpanduri and sporadic political tensions in Walewale and Nalerigu, have continued to cripple economic opportunities and damaged living conditions of the inhabitants.
Apart from acute water shortages, lack of health care centers and poor education, bad roads and unpredictable weather conditions also continue to worsen poverty of the peasant farmers, who are without any other livelihood options, to hopeless levels, as millions of farm produces each year are left to rot due to access to market facilities following decrepit roads situation.
During the works of the inquiry commission in the area, only the Tampluma ethnic group living in many communities of the Gonjas controlled North Gonja district requested to be part of the North East Region, instead, the ministry removed the chereponi district, a Dagbon district, from the Northern Region to be added to the North East.
Chereponi Chief Rejects Inclusion
The inclusion of the chereponi district to the proposed North East Region set off a growing angry protest from the paramount chief, Maliba Jaminja Yombu. The chief started his protest in April this year with a written petition to President Akuffo Addo in which he said the decision was to include chereponi was a recipe for chaos, instability and insecurity.
The chief said the authority of Chereponi was from Dagbon as such, if he must be joined to any region, he would want to to be part of then proposed Eastern Corridor Region, so as to continue with his allegiance to Dagbon.
However, the paramount chief became more incensed in September when the Electoral Commission dispatched staff to carry out a limited registration exercise that was also happening in other areas earmarked for the creation of new regions.
The chief could not comprehend why government wanted to organize a referendum in the area despite his rejection of the new region. The exercise was however, carried out next day after armed policemen were deployed by government.
Dagbon Traditional Council Backs Chereponi Chief, Rejects Naa Yili’s Request
Following the wave of strong agitations by the chereponi chief, the overlord of the Mamprugu Traditional Area, Naa Mahami Sheriga, wrote formally to the acting Yaa Naa and President of Dagbon Traditional Area, Kampakuyana Abdulai Yakubu Andani at the Gbewaa Palace in Yendi, requesting for Dagbon to accept the inclusion of chereponi to the proposed North East Region. The request for the district was to boost the geographical size of the North East region, which has only Walewale is the only largest and popular town.
After several months of deliberations, the Dagbon Traditional Council organized an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, 16 October, at the Regional House of Chiefs in Tamale, and unanimously rejected the request of the Naa Yiri’s to allow the inclusion of the chereponi area to be added the proposed North East Region, which would be a predominantly Mamprusis region.
“After a careful examination of the cultural, historical and geographical implications of he request, the Dagbon Traditional Council decided that it could not offer its support”, the DTC announced it decision after the memorable meeting that was attended by both the Abudus and Andanis.
The Council also reiterated its vow not to allow any part of Dagbon lands be added to any region and cautioned government not to brush off its position on the matter.
Maneuvers
Immediately after the meeting of the Dagbon Traditional Council, a group emerged in the town campaigning in support for the inclusion of the area to the proposed North East.
The Chereponi Advocacy Group for North East Region, a pro North East protesters, was formed to rally support for massive participation in the upcoming referendum. The group has suggested to government not bow to pressure from the Dagbon traditional authorities, including the chereponi paramount chief.
The group’s activities in the district irritated the chief who warned to “crush” it leaders when they declared intent last week to stage a street march to mark the outdooring of the group and its mission. Security forces were deployed again and the event was marked against the chief’s disapproval. The group later reacted that the event was not a demonstration but “peaceful march” and insisted the paramount chief offered his acceptance.
Following that episode, a chereponi palace elder alleged to StarrNews that some of the leaders of the advocacy group had close ties with some key Mamprusi personalities in government.
The elder claimed further that authorities at the Naa Yiri after failing to diplomatically secure the district from its rightful owners were now resorting to “maneuvering” in order to deceive government to remove chereponi from Dagbon.
The elder said the Mamprugu Traditional Council has promised the group to appoint the first regional minister from Chereponi when the district is added to the North East Region. This group has denied this claim and said it believed the inclusion will bring development to the area.
The Mamprugu Traditional Council was not respond to the allegations.
Dagbon Youth to Hit Streets
Troubled by the development, the Dagbon Centre for Leadership and Development will be leading thousands of Dagbon youth onto the streets next week to demand just treatment from government.
According to the Tamale based leadership tink tank, government’s conduct on the matter seemed to suggest it was ignoring the decision of the Dagbon Traditional Council, hence the decision to protest to show support for their chiefs.
The group said it had also taken notice of government’s swiftness in unleashing armed security on the area anytime the chief raised any protest against the partitioning efforts on his jurisdiction.
“In this regard, the DCLD has considered the street procession as one of the several options to reecho the position of the Traditional Council and the entire Dagbon State. It is very clear that the entire Dagbon people are opposed to this move, therefore, the need for the government not to only consider the application of the Naa Yiri as paramount but also consider the opposing position of the entire Dagbon”, the media coordinator of the tink tank, Shaibu Mohammed, said in a statement.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/Eliasu Tanko
