RECURRENT CONFLICTS IN NORTHERN GHANA; THE WAY FORWARD

It is a basic fact that conflict is a powerful force that confronts every human society. No matter how enlightened a society may appear to be, it cannot claim absolute immunity over the potential of experiencing conflict.

This explains why most modern societies have committed energies and resources to developing holistic and effective fire belts, in the forms of measures and structures - to serve as insulators against the outbreak of violent conflicts.

Although positive post-conflict peacebuilding outcomes are believed to have some influence in correcting the ills of the affected communities, armed conflict for instance, remains the least of preferred options for settling differences. This is mainly because of its irreparable impact, such as loss of lives and other attendant human rights abuses. 

Sadly, armed violence has almost become the convenient panacea to ethnic and chieftaincy disputes in the country, especially in the northern sector. This development needs to be looked at seriously with a deliberate drive to finding lasting solution to them.  

While it may be argued that not a single region in Ghana is immune to armed violence, the frequent eruption of pockets of violence in the northern region this year has become a major concern to many. It is almost predictable that the situation may deteriorate on a dark day if long term strategies are continuously overlooked in a bid to deal with the situation.

Already, five lives have been lost in two separate clashes that occurred between April and May this year. This is alarming considering the space of time the lives were lost. It is in this regard that urgent steps must be taken by government and civil society groups to mitigate these incidents.

Ghana appears to have a limited scope of peace efforts as such campaigns only become prominent during sensitive national events. Evidently, elections are the most targeted of all peace efforts in the country. Other vulnerable areas such as chieftaincy and land disputes have barely received the needed attention. Whilst the current move by the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs to codify the lines of succession is commendable it must be emphasised that documents do not work on their own except by human efforts.  The need for attitudinal change in the approach to dealing with these chronic conflicts, particularly in the north, is therefore critical in ensuring national peace.

To make progress in this direction requires an integrative approach that embraces specific steps at all levels of the country’s peace efforts. Clearly, beefing up the country’s intelligence gathering cannot be overemphasised. The Bureau of National Investigations and the Criminal Investigative Departments need to be further equipped with the acumen to hatch security threats through effective information gathering. Failure to place intelligence gathering at the centre of the country’s conflict prevention efforts will continue to disable all attempts to achieve this objective.

The disease of non-political assertiveness which characterise government’s willingness in dealing with northern conflicts must stop. Political lip service to the region’s conflicts is a major setback which undermines the state’s ability to apply ‘carrots and sticks’ in resolving its internal conflicts.

There is also the need for government and other nongovernmental peacebuilding organisations to be proactive by investing in fact-finding research that is capable of uncovering the subjective and objective dimensions that account for the conflicts.

Again, the use of military muscle must be diversified to include the application of positive inducement which is aimed at long-term conflict resolution. This is often not the case in the north as military involvement is limited to scattering of the feuding factions after which a cease-fire is considered the end of conflict. 

Creepy, as it may sound, is the stereotyped view some Ghanaians have about their northern based countrymen. Some individuals have the thinking that ‘pepefor’, literally northern folks, lack understanding and should be left to their fate. This mindset is unhealthy and needs to be discarded as it jeopardises the spirit of neighbourliness which is essential for national integration and development.

Indeed, no part of Ghana can be detached to function in isolation because of the resources it brings to the national table or the crises that it is bedevilled with. However, the repercussions of conflicts in any region have rippling effects on all and therefore must be a concern to all.

Writer’s email address: bisilkibaba@gmail.com

Published: Daily Dispatch newspaper, Ghana, 29Th May, 2014.