Former President John Dramani Mahama is claiming that in a future NDC government, he will help consolidate the peace in Dagbon, one of Ghana’s most important modern traditional states.
According to him, the future government will support all relevant stakeholders within the Dagbon Peace Project impartially to ensure that the fledgling peace in the area is fortified.
Dagbon had suffered a 30-year civil war until recently, peace talks that had span the Kufuor, Mills and Mahama governments had been consolidated under the Presidency of Akufo-Addo.
It is unclear the Peace ex-President Mahama is promising to consolidate. According to him, the current administration lacks the willpower to address the impunity prevailing in Dagbon which has far-reaching implications on the relative peace in the area.
Mr. Mahama was speaking at two separate events at the Gbewaa Palace in Yendi and the Nanton-Naa Mahamadu V’s Palace at Nanton Zuo over the weekend as part of his two-day Thank-You Tour of the Northern region.
At the Ya Na’s Palace, the former President promised that his government will not, proverbially, give the Ya-Na a cow in public and then go back to hold its tale in secret.
A future NDC government he said, will give the people full and impartial support to ensure genuine peace and rapid development of the area.
Later, former President Mahama sympathised with the Nanton-Naa Mahamadu V in his Palace at Nanton-Zuo, saying he is a political victim.
The Nanton-Naa, he lamented, has been refused support by the government to assume his rightful traditional role in Nanton because of his perceived membership of the NDC.
He bemoaned the government’s meddlesomeness in chieftaincy issues there by the government, encouraging people who lack the requisite qualification to hold themselves up as Chiefs, without being appointed by the rightful appointing authority.
“You are being treated this way because of NDC, but the fact is that the truth will always triumph over falsehood,” he said.
Nanton-Naa Mahamadu V, a former Council of State member under the NDC was enskinned as the Chief of Nanton by Ya-Na Abukari II, King and Overlord of Dagbon, in March 2019.
But one former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, who was also enskinned by the Ya-Na as the Chief of Zoosali, Alhaji Haruna Tia Sulemana, hurriedly went and occupied the Nanton Skin.
This created serious security threats to the fragile Dagbon Peace Project and many analysts familiar with the matter cited the former role of Nanton-Naa Mahamadu V as a member of the Council of State under the previous NDC regime as the reason the current government is lackadaisical in addressing the issue, despite the impunity and blatant infraction of the law and the chieftaincy act by the NPP’s former Chairman, Alhaji Haruna Tia Sulemana.
According to analysts, the Nanton issue will reverse the gains in Dagbon as the impunity is encouraging other areas to join that bandwagon. Karaga is another town being usurped by one Sumani Mahama a.k.a Alizini as the Chief, while the legitimately enskinned Chief is allegedly an outcast now.
Source: whatsupnewsghana