Many continue to hold the view and promote the narrative that Ghana is a very peaceful country. They make this assertion without looking at what continues to plague our people in Bawku in Upper East.
The age-long, seemingly never-ending conflict in the Bawku area has had a toll on the people living in and around the town. Thousands, if not millions, of lives have been lost through this conflict.
Despite this prehistoric war between the two main ethnic groups, it has, over the past few years, been used as a tool by a group of politicians to win political power. The NDC is guilty of this obnoxious enterprise of riding to political power pitching the tribes against the NPP.
In the run-up to the 2024 general elections, the then opposition National Democratic Congress made every effort to escalate the conflict between the Kusasis and their Mamprusi siblings.
This, they did by deploying emissaries into the various settler communities and constituencies to preach against Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. Constituencies dominated by Kusasis were mostly targeted by the NDC’s scheme against Dr. Bawumia.
Cletus Avoka, Collins Dauda and other Kusasis who are kingpins in the ruling NDC were used to preach anti-Bawumia sentiments to the Kusasis. Their message was simply ‘If you vote for Bawumia as a Kusasi and he ascends the throne of the Presidency, he will buy weapons for Mamprusis to kill all Kusasis’.
Another dangerous but ludicrous message against Dr. Bawumia was ‘Bawumia is supplying the guns to the Mamprusis to kill Kusasis. A vote for him would mean the extinction of Kusasis’.
These negative, inflammatory, instigative and incendiary sermons heavily affected the fortunes of Dr. Bawumia and the NPP in constituencies where Kusasis live. They succeeded convincing the Kusasis to see Bawumia and the NPP as enemies.
It can also be recalled that President John Dramani Mahama, in the run-up to the 2024 elections, said that anytime his party, the NDC, is in power, peace reigns in Bawku. He claimed that the conflict intensifies whenever the NPP is in power and drew inferences from the skirmishes that had engulfed the area at the time.
The Kusasis voted against Dr. Bawumia because of the negative campaign the NDC waged against him and the NPP. What do we see today? Has the conflict in Bawku stopped because the NDC is in power?
Bawku is very much active in the very conflict blamed on Dr. Bawumia during the campaign. Bawumia is not the President of the Republic, but people are being killed daily. Mahama Ayariga has virtually become a persona non grata in his constituency, Bawku Central.
The question to ask now is simple. Who is buying all the guns being used in the conflict now? Not Bawumia. If voting against Dr. Bawumia could not bring lasting resolution to the Bawku conflict, it, therefore, stands to reason that this conflict of so many decades ago is not political.
Bawumia is not a monster and warmonger after all, and neither is he someone who would want blood to be shed just to advance his political fortune, something others in other parties have been doing for years.
WMN.