HON

HON

The thought of election 2012 scares me. I can feel the temperature rising by the minute. It is unfortunately making me revise my long held views that our dear nation Ghana will never go through the unfortunate incidents that plagued Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and some other African nations. In fact I am now so sure that there can be civil war in Ghana someday soon if we continue to thread this dangerous path.

My beef today is the report made by Hon. Inusah Fuseini on the floor of the Ghanaian Parliament on June 01, 2011. This had to do with his allegations that Hon. Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, MP for Fanteakwa had made some disparaging remarks about the people of northern Ghana whilst contributing to a debate on the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). SADA is a developmental agency instituted by the government of Ghana to improve the livelihood conditions within the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and some parts of the Volta and Brong- Ahafo regions of Ghana.

I listened to the Fanteakwa MP on Peace FM and to Hon. Fuseini's assertions on Joy FM. If Hon. Fuseini, a lawyer by profession, who obviously seems to have very little literary prowess over the Twi language, really believes what the Fanteakwa MP said on radio in Twi is exactly what he read in parliament in English today then either I do not understand both Twi and English or people like him are just too eager to hold on to political power even at the cost of destroying our nation.


At least I can say without any doubt that Hon. Amankwa Asiamah never said northerners are lazy in his submissions. I wonder why Hon. Fuseini did not add that the Fanteakwa MP as part of his submissions questioned why the offices of SADA is being located in Accra instead of Tamale or any of the major towns in the areas concerned. The conclusions I drew from the Fanteakwa MP’s contribution was that though affirmative action (SADA) is positive and necessary sometimes, evidence abound that it does not always yield the desired results. He alluded to the vast resources of northern Ghana and added that in the light of these resources, the erroneous impression held by many Ghanaians that northerners are poor cannot hold water. He thus called for a rejection of this impression. Also in addition was his claim that affirmative action tends to be discriminatory.

What were Hon. Fuseini’s motives? Has it got anything to do with the difficulties he and some of his colleagues are having with their constituents because of the illusory promises they are supposed to have made to the people of Dagbon subsequent to the callous and barbaric incidents that led to the demise of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani, the then Overlord of Dagbon, which have so far not materialized? Even if Hon. Fuseini’s assertions were to be true, was the floor of Parliament the most appropriate channel for redress? Could he not have filed a direct complaint to Madam Speaker, the Leadership or the Privileges Committee of the House? Or was the creation of this un-necessary drama that can tear our nation into shreds a part of a grand agenda?
The rate at which families and tribes are being set up against one another in Ghana by these politicians fully aided by very un-ethical media organizations calls for concern. I bet I will not be wrong to fully predict without any room for a margin of error that come next year when the electioneering campaign is fully at its apogee, the playing up of tribal differences and ethnocentrism will be the order of the day.

One would have wished that in 2011, when others are busily planning an onslaught on the Planet Mars, our elected elite will be doing something worthwhile, like finding some home grown and lasting solutions to minor challenges like malaria and cholera. But no, they will not do so. In addition they will not give us the space and peace to think to improve our lot. They will rather cause us to fight unnecessary battles for space, territory and recognition without any clear cut ideals and ideas. Ghana deserves better, much better than the gutter “dog eats dog” politics we are being served daily.