OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA THE SON OF JAKPA WHO DOES NOT FEAR GUN SHOTS Dear Mr. President, This evening as I tap away on my keyboard, I feel ashamed as a Ghanaian. I feel so because my President for a moment while in Bawku for this year’s Samanpiid seized being a leader and descended into the gutters probably following the advice of people who have been in the gutters all along. But as a daughter of Bawku, I feel sad. I feel sad for my town of birth. I feel sad for the town that was once Ghana’s second largest revenue generator aside Techiman. At the just ended Samanpiid festival of the Kusasis in Bawku, your excellency as part of your address made some unfortunate statements. These statements when closely looked at, one would realize they were more divisive than uniting the people. And such divisiveness from no other person than a President leaves much to be desired. It makes me weep for my country and for my beloved hometown, Bawku. I am pretending that you genuinely want the best for Bawku that is why I am choosing to write you. But I said I am pretending because if indeed you wanted the best for Bawku, you would have known better than stoop so low. Below are your words Mr. President: “Our ethnic diversity and cultural diversity here in Bawku must be a source of strength and not a source of weakness and division. I know that the majority of people in Bawku here want to live their lives in peace. This majority out numbers the few who wish to thrive on the division amongst us. The theme for this Samanpiid festival is “promoting cultural development: the way forward” but how can we promote cultural development when we have no peace. Whenever government thinks of relaxing or withdrawing some of the security measures enforced in the area we are greeted with fresh hostilities, even just yesterday when it had been announced that the President was visiting to be the special guest, I’m told there were sporadic gunshots in the township. That is unacceptable and if those gunshots were meant to deter me, the people should ask again. I’m the son of Jakpa, I don’t fear gunshots.” The part of the statement above that disappoints me is the bit about you being the son of Jakpa and for that matter you do not fear gunshots. This statement is very unfortunate and so uncalled for. Your Excellency, you had at that moment forgotten that you are President. You forgot that you represented all ethnic groups in Bawku. You missed a golden opportunity to unite the people and free the oppressed. You forgot that, at that single event, and by that single platform, you could have put forward a roadmap to peace and ensure that all feuding factions abide by it. You forgot that, you could have used that platform to remind the organizers of the Samanpiid about the theme for their celebration. You forgot to ask the security agencies present to ensure that all other ethnic groups particularly the Mamprusis also get to celebrate their Bugum, Damba and other festivals without any intimidation from the security agencies or any other body or group as has been the case in the past. You forgot that, you could have paid the Mamprusis a courtesy call if for no reason at all but to mourn with them their loss of the Late Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim kobilla who until his death had met you severally on peace for Bawku and who had worked so tirelessly for peace in Bawku in the not so distant past. You had forgot, Mr. President that you could lead by example and even promise to be a part of the Damba celebrations come February just to show the way forward to a peaceful Bawku. Instead, Mr. President, you at that moment chose to be a part of one of the feuding factions of the Bawku conflict and thus boast to your imaginary opponents in the TOWNSHIP (after all, that is where you claim the gunshots, that were fired immediately it was announced that you were visiting as a special guest, came from) about your immunity to gun shots as a result of your being a son of Jakpa. I’m i to deduce here then, that it is a Spear you are afraid of and for that matter the good people of Bawku should make spears their choice if the intention is to deter you as you put it? After all, the so called Jakpa you boast so much of died only of a Spear! Mr. President, it is obvious that you either do not listen to your security advisers. If you listen to them at all it is obvious that they gave you very bad reports about where the gunshots emanated and for what reason there were gun shots. I don’t need to give you any proof for this assertion because as Vice President, your predecessor, the late President John Evans Atta Mills sent you to Bawku on a fact-finding mission to bring lasting peace to Bawku. So you know the story. You must have gathered the facts. You know what the issues are. Your then Upper East Regional Minister, Hon Limuna briefed you on the Bawku situation. Mark Woyongo, the architect of the deceitful Bawku Inter Ethnic Peace Committee and currently your Minister of Defence also briefed you. Even if you forgot the facts you gathered during your fact- finding mission, the briefing from Limuna and Woyongo cannot be lost on you. And if these briefings are not lost on you, then you would have clearly seen the mischief, the misinformation and the propaganda in the briefing you got from wherever, that informed your speechwriter, and if it was extempore, yourself, to include, that the sporadic gunshots came from the Township. Remember that the people who live in the township belong to tribes. And every area in Bawku township has a name. Please forgive me if you are actually a part of the mischief, or the misinformation or the propaganda. If that is the case, then you actually don’t have the people of Bawku at heart. You should know better than fall in that trap of negative propaganda against a certain ethnic group in the Township where you say the gunshots emanated. For if that negative propaganda could bring lasting peace to Bawku, the scarce resources you complain so much of spending in Bawku to bring lasting peace could be used for other needs of the people. I am talking about the resources spent on keeping the security agencies in Bawku all in the name of bringing about PEACE Your political Godfather, Former President Jerry John Rawlings, famous for his extempore gaffes and booms was in your place last year as a special guest for the Samapiid and even HE made a very mature speech. He complained that he did not see his Mamprusi friends (if he has any left at all) at the Samanpiid event and thus called for unity amongst the people. He even used that platform to remind you of your duty as a President from Northern Ghana, to use your good offices to solve the chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts in our part of the county. I expected that the communications expert you are, you would do even better than Rawlings did but alas, your mantra of an action driven president remains only in words and NEVER in deeds. Your Excellency, I know that deep within your heart you know what you can do to bring sustainable peace in Bawku. By just doing the right thing and you know what that is. Just take the meeting that was arranged between you and the Mamprusis about three or four months ago for instance. At that meeting and unbeknown to the Mamprusis, you invited every Kusasi Government Appointee to be a part of it. That was unfair and this notwithstanding the Mamprusis, lay bare their concern. This concern was that you make it possible for them to celebrate their Damba Festival. And by making it possible they meant you should talk to the security to stop harassing them and give them security like you give to the Kusasis, to also celebrate their festival. They provided documentary evidence to prove the bias of the security against them but you clearly were not interested. Instead of addressing this concern, you appealed to them to go back to the Bawku Inter Ethnic Peace Committee. The Mamprusis gave you reasons why they on two other occasions left the Bawku Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee. They needed your commitment and assurance that prior to their going back, their concerns would be met. You asked the then Upper East Regional Minister to go back and get those concerns resolved and report to you. As soon as they left you turned around and did a ministerial reshuffle thus crippling that process. How genuine was your directive then that the Minister goes back and look into the concerns raised by the Mamprusis? And was the new Minister reminded of that directive? By your deeds, Mr. President, we know your intentions. If you have no desire for peace in Bawku, why do you waste State resources claiming you want peace in Bawku. For instance you visit the Nayiri, Overlord of Mamprugu and Kingmaker of the Bawku Traditional area and appeal to him severally, to get the Mamprusis back on the Bawku Inter Ethnic Peace Committee. The Nayiri of course listens to you and the peace lover he is, he appeals to the Mamprusis to return. You receive letters both from the Nayiri and the Mamprusis assuring you of their willingness to return if their concerns would be addressed. With all this backroom processes and negotiations going on, you chose to offend the sensibilities of the Mamprusis with this careless and reckless speech of yours. What kind of double standards is this? How genuine is your commitment then for peace. If you have no desire for peace in Bawku, then it is better to do nothing at all. Doing nothing at all would be better than stoking a fire that has been raging for God knows how long. Now you turn around at a platform for Kusasis, and ask Mamprusis to return to the peace table. Anyone who reads this will ask why these Mamprusis are refusing to be part of a process that will bring peace. They will be thinking that Mamprusis are not lovers of peace as a result of which they do not want to be part of the Bawku Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee. What they will not know however are these, THAT; 1. Terms of reference agreed by all parties in the Bawku Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee are selectively followed in favour of Kusasis. Eg. All tribes are allowed to celebrate their festivals without intimidation. All tribes do this with protection and blessings of the state (a recent example being your partaking and endorsement of the Samanpiid) except the Mamprusis when it comes to their Damba Festival celebrations. 2. Your administration immediately activates the security agencies to descend heavily on the Mamprusis and ensure they never celebrate the Damba. For example last year when the Mamprusis in a law abiding manner, wrote to the police informing them about their intention to celebrate Damba, the police cited the ignition of a conflict and threatened arrests of Mamprusis if they went ahead and celebrated the Damba. 3. The Police even referred to the letter informing them about the intended celebration as RE: BAWKU CONFLICT DAMBA when such a heading was never in the Mamprusi’s letter in the first place. This clearly exposed the bias of the police and all these were brought to your attention and yet not a single thing has been done about it. 4. MUSEC, REGSEC, THE BNI and the POLICE (and there is ample evidence made available to you through your Regional Minister and the National Peace Council) connive with the Kusasis to pursue their agenda of legitimizing a chieftaincy that remains a bone of contention. 5. Abugrago clearly stated about two years ago (and there is documentary evidence to this) that he would stoke mayhem if the Mamprusis are allowed tocelebrate Damba. This was not only a mere threat but also a threat, which he and his followers carried out. You can check this out with Mark Woyongo and the security agencies. If a man threatens and actually execute his threats, what evidence do you need again to ensure law and order? Why wasn’t anybody arrested when they started firing the gunshots? Or was it that those gunshots did not emanate from the TOWNSHIP and so as usual you and the security agencies were not interested? 6. This government in the midst of all these threats will descend on the Mamprusis as though the Mamprusis were the problem. What more evidence could one give about Government official connivance with the Kusasis to oppress and suppress the Mamprusis? All the above and you do not see the need to talk to the security agencies or the Kusasis on whose platform you made your unfortunate speech to do their part at ensuring that peace prevails. All these and you do not see the need to address a single concern of the Mamprusis and yet you stand on the Kusasi samanpiid platform and ask the Mamprusis to return to the Bawku Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee. If this attititude is not abandoned, and government and the security agencies begin to play neutral and allow due process to prevail, there can never be sustainable peace in Bawku. You can only boast of the peace where millions of Ghanaian taxpayers cedis are spent to keep the security agencies in Bawku so you can tickle yourself and laugh that there is peace. Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa fought wars and captured lands. With the power he had, he felt invincible and ventured into places against the advice of his spiritual adviser Ibrahim (By the way Ndewura Jakpa’s spiritual adviser, Ibrahm, married a Mamprusi woman – sorry if you already know this Mr. President) I am sure as a scholar of history, your history lessons told you how Jakpa ended after he ignored his spiritual adviser’s admonitions? A spear and not GUNSHOTS, ended his life. He could not even be buried where Gonja chiefs/heroes are buried because his body was fast decomposing. Bawku is not there for Jakpa’s grabs or his son’s grabs. If the Kusasi’s could grab it they would have done so long ago rather than go looking for the help of Jakpa’s son who does not fear gunshots. As if gunshots mean anything to the daughter of Gbanwaa who knows how to use a SPEAR. Mr. President, wake up and smell the coffee. FROM ABIBA ABDULAI BILQIS THE DAUGHTER OF GBANWAA WHO KNOWS HOW TO USE A SPEAR Promoted stories
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:51:20 +0000
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