<<Print>>

The three regions in the northern part of Ghana—Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions—are common for their underdevelopment status. One will not be wrong at all to say that these are high poverty-stricken regions in the country.

NO wonder many of the youth in these regions who migrate to the southern part of the country find themselves doing menial jobs. Unfortunately, many of the females amongst them become head porters (commonly referred to as kayayei), with the men engaging in the collection of scraps among other tedious jobs.

HOWEVER, aside from the high level of poverty, these regions have gained notoriety for armed conflicts and their attendant effects, which often are fuelled by chieftaincy conflicts. The slightest chieftaincy dispute in any part of the three regions up north is a potential for serious collateral damage.

TODAY many investors (both domestic and foreign) dread investing in many parts of these regions. The reason is simple: they do not want their investment to come to naught. That is understandable, especially when we are talking about investment and volatile areas.

A few Ghanaian investors however, have defied all odds and are doing business in some parts of the North. But shouldn’t we have a situation where every part of Ghana must be able to attract investment be it domestic or foreign? Obviously, yes!

IT is against this backdrop that Today is worried about the continuous chieftaincy clashes in the North. Last week Thursday and Friday (February 9th and 10th), Bimbilla, a flashpoint town in the Northern Region, was in the news. And as usual the town was in the news because of renewed chieftaincy clashes.

WE understand last week’s clashes claimed the lives of two persons while several others sustained serious injuries. What we find very difficult to comprehend is the way and manner conflicts in any parts of the north spread.

THESE conflicts spread fast and quickly like fire with no time for innocent people to even take cover. That explains why within a split second of any chieftaincy conflict in parts of the north houses are set ablaze amidst other life-threatening activities.

AND then the country will, in turn, expend huge Ghana cedis to repair the damage caused, maintain and enforce the peace in such areas, by deploying military and police personnel to these conflict-prone areas. We believe that such monies that are usually spent on maintaining peace in such areas could have been used to develop these same areas.

OUR brothers and sisters in the north must understand that the development of their region will continue to lag behind if they are always involved in conflicts. Thus, it is about time that leaders of their communities took the firm stance and say enough of these senseless conflicts which do not in anyway improve the lot of our people.

TODAY also seizes this opportunity to charge our security officers in these flashpoints to be proactive to ensure that troublemakers are quickly fished out before they create problems. In that manner some of these violent clashes will be averted.