Sunday, September 05, 2010
Conflicts in the North - Poverty or Political Manipulation?
By Sandow Seidu Kpebu
KMC Communications/GFM Radio, London
The following feature was first published by the Public Agenda newspaper in Ghana on the 15th of September 2008 and a host of websites thereafter. I am reproducing it in light of recent developments in the country. Read on:
The northern region of Ghana has become a scar on the conscience of well meaning Ghanaians and sympathisers.
The real threat to the development of the region is the high incidence of poverty, illiteracy and the attitude of politicians. This is traceable to the colonial days when it was used as a source of labour supply to the mines and the source of able bodies for slave traders.
Before the advent of colonialism, northern Ghana (region) was at the heart of trade routes and food production between the 15th and 19th centuries. However, the re-routing of trading routes to coastal Ghana during the colonial period denied the north the trading activities. The slave trade and sourcing of labour for the mines and cocoa farms and plantation also denied the region manpower to till the land.
The colonialists did not consider the north a development priority since the resources they needed to transport to their countries were nonexistent, especially, after the passage of the abolition of slave trade bill by the British House of Commons in 1807.
This was also a reason why the road network was not developed until the CPP government under Dr Kwame Nkrumah constructed some feeder roads.
After the first republic, subsequent governments failed to develop the human resource and infrastructure base of the region; however they have used the few educated ones as conduit for political power.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah's free education policy was to address the in-balance of north-south development by increasing the manpower base of the region using it as catalyst for the accelerated development. Apart from the few factories and schools that were established, there was no well planned and thought through policy document for the development of the north after Dr Nkrumah.
The economic activity of the people was thereby reduced to petty trading and subsistence farming which only fed the family and not much for extra income. The educated ones also sought white collar jobs in the cities and failed to help the region.
As a result of lack of economic activities, the income level of the residents of northern Ghana is much low and with large families, it becomes difficult to take care of their children's education. Not until recently, parents were not encouraged to send their children to school since they needed support on their farms.
However, with the extension of electricity, telecommunication and the affirmative action which empowered women in the 1980s/90s, modest economic activities and enlightenment were increased, including school enrolment. This is not to say that this resolved the poverty and illiteracy situation of northern Ghana.
As one approaches the region, you can still see and feel poverty starring you in the face. There is lack of educational and healthcare facilities, social infrastructure, industries, job opportunities, poor road networks, lack of proper economic activities; and the housing and water situation is depressing. James Baldwin writes in his book; Nobody Knows My Name, that "anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor". But our plutocrat politicians do not know how expensive poverty is to the proletariats; they do not even want to know.
The politicians seeing these myriad of problems up north only indulge in moribund politics of nostalgia to influence the people to vote for them. As soon as these unrepentant politicians get what they want, they leave the region to its fate. What is more, the northern politicians who abet these crimes develop a bloated ego and turn themselves into demi-gods. They will go to any length to maintain the status quo, including allowing themselves to be used to incite conflicts to continue wallowing in the empty pride they assume.
It is enough warning when Brooks Atkinson states in; Once Around the Sun, that "after each war there is a little less democracy to save". True democrats, as our politicians want us to believe they are, will not indulge in war or violence to promote democracy. How can one be a king sitting on an empty skin/throne without subjects?
Interestingly, northern politicians are always content with DEPUTY (Vice) positions, which they are prepared to play a complicit role to murder their people to achieve. I am saying this with a hand on heart for my country and people up north. In fact, I am also filled with rage over the attitude of northern politicians and elites. Who amongst them is brave enough to question President Kufuor why he fails to visit the north whenever there is disaster or violence? Is he the president for one part of Ghana or president for the whole Ghana?
Sitting in Accra and calling our chiefs to insult them as in the case of Bawku, something he dares do to chiefs from other areas, will not resolve the problems up north.
What is happening in northern Ghana is exactly what Dr Akosua Adoma Perbi of University of Ghana wrote about when she said that "European traders found it hard to get slaves during times of peace. However, when there was war, gold was scarce and slaves were widely available".
Transposing this quote means that when there is peace in northern Ghana, politicians cannot use their divisive methods to gain votes, power, bloated ego, self importance and livelihood; thus these are scarce, but when there are divisions, these are "widely available" or it serves their political strategy.
I must state here that elite northerners should bow their heads in shame. They should vow to bring peace and development to the region and pledge not to allow themselves to be used as political pawns and fall guys. At this point I am generalising without exception, there are a few who have paid their dues to the development of the north.
Where there is the will every problem (conflict) can be resolved and northerners have to develop this will to resolve all outstanding issues. It is difficult especially where there are losses of lives but for how long are we going to continue with the internecine strife? Continuing to kill each other and causing violence will never resolve the differences.
People who indulge in violence of any sort must be charged with causing financial loss to the state and prosecuted, since the government will have to spend our scarce resources keeping peace and repairing damages.
There cannot be any meaningful development in the region if there is no peace. The major peace threat in the region is poverty, illiteracy and chieftaincy disputes some of which are incited and sponsored by politicians for political gains. Without peace, any government in power will continue to use the conflicts in the region as a smokescreen thereby diverting development projects meant for that part of Ghana elsewhere. It will not also attract investors, tourists and expertise.
The few northerners whose self importance, ego, power, livelihood come from confusion and violence should be named and shamed.
The land mass of northern Ghana covers nearly half of the country and can be put to productive use. Since the main stay of the people is agriculture, government should consider reintroducing subsidies and loan facilities for the farmers to go into vegetable, Shea nut/butter, tubers and cereal farming.
The agriculture extension programme should be encouraged and resourced. I believe this will encourage the youth to take up farming thereby creating job opportunities for them. Most of these conflicts are as a result of lack of jobs, development and economic activities. If the youth have jobs that will help them live a meaningful life, nothing will incite them into violence, which will prevent them from enjoying their new found luxury. This is a simple fact of life.
No amount of charity fund can develop northern Ghana if the development agenda of Ghana does not incorporate the development of the north. Personally, I see the establishment of the NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT FUND as undermining the people of the regions. I don't want to believe that only charity fund can and will develop the north. If there is no national will and commitment clearly stated in a blue print, setting up of million charities will be an illusion.
This is the time for reawakening for northerners in particular and Ghanaians in general.
P.S.: We should put the spin-doctors in spin clinics, where they can meet other spin patients and be treated by spin consultants. The rest of us can get on with the proper democratic process. Tony Benn: The Independent, 25 October 1997.