"Worse Enemies of Northerners in Ghana" â?? Rejoinder

Fellow Ghanaians and fellow Northerners, permit me to task your tight time schedule by asking you to patiently go through this article and add your comments and suggestions to enable us unfold reasons behind the little progress made in the development of Northern Ghana. This issue for simplicity is limited to the last two regimes of former Presidents; JJ Rawlings and J.A. Kuffour. However, it pertains to the development of Northern Ghana since independence and not only these last regimes.

The article titled "Worse Enemies of Northerners in Ghana" that was posted on the Ghanaweb on Monday 16 March 2009 discussed the lack of development in Northern Ghana and identified the Northern Politicians as the "worse enemies" in this regard. The reason, according to the author of the article is that Northern Politicians have done nothing both in the regimes of JJ and Kuffour to develop the North. In response to the author's call for others to join this import discussion, I have decided to write this rejoinder but beg to differ from his observations and conclusions.

In the first place I would not subscribe to calling the Northern Politicians enemies to the development of Ghana. An enemy is an intentional opponent or rival to something, in this case to the development of Northern Ghana. I cannot imagine our Northern Politicians purposely formulating evil in their minds against their own roots. If they have done nothing at all according to the article I see it as either ignorance or incapacitated by other political forces. However, I believe they have done something but there is still more room for improvement and no need for complacency in this matter. Below are my humble reasons for my assertions.

If our Northern Politicians have done nothing at all for the North especially in the JJ regimes, then what is the reason for the overwhelming support of NDC in the North? Are the Northerners so dumb and blind not to wake up to realities after being in P/NDC for nineteen years without any benefit? Or are they compelled at the point of the gun to vote NDC? Even after NDC dropped into opposition for eight good years, its grip in the North did not loosen. There should and must be good reasons for this and that is the visible projects every Tom, Dick and Harry can see in the North (good strategy for other parties to emulate). I am not an NDC by the way, but we must reason together and acknowledge facts no matter our political or ethnic affiliations.

A political party is a team work, and as per the working spirit of teams, no particular member is accredited with success but the entire group. This is why you may not find a particular Northern Politician's name written beside any project. Let us begin with the JJ regimes. I traveled from Walewale to Accra in August 1980 and it took two and a half days to get to Accra. This was due to the nature of the roads linking Southern and Northern Ghana in those days. Anyone who had made similar travels during the 1980s will attest to what I said above. The North was not easy to access. In 1992 when I made my first visit to Ghana after leaving for graduate studies, I found some improvement but there was still more room for improvement. We took about 8 hours from Accra to Tamale but still lost 3 hours from Tamale to Walewale (a distance of only 68 miles or about 110Km). By the turn of 2000, the journey from Walewale to Tamale took only 45 minutes and probably 1 hour. Tamale in particular was transformed and any Northerner who was mature before the 1980s could tell the difference by the end of JJ regime. Now people travel from Bolga to Tamale (100 miles or 161km) and back before sun set. Accessibility is one key prerequisite to development. What we have to be asking ourselves is that have we Northerners made the best out of this accessibility? Yes or no; depends largely upon where you look at the coin. There are still other parts of the North not yet linked to the whole country and this is a challenge for the current Northern politicians. The work has been done, let us acknowledge this fact, however, there is still more room for improvement.

Secondly, every Northerner no matter his/her political affiliation would not fail to applause the JJ regime for the electricity we all now enjoy. Energy is a necessary and sufficient condition for any development. How much have we made personal and collect strides in utilizing this golden opportunity again depends on how you look at the coin. The JJ regime might have done it as a long term strategy for the NDC or might have been motivated both by the need for this strategy and the contribution of the then Northern Politicians. The present challenge for Northern Politicians is to guide us into how to tap the benefits of electricity. They should look at reviving the old Northern factories such as the meat factory at Bolga, the tomatoes factory at Kplugu, and the rice mill at Kpong tamale including how to lobby for new ones to make good use of the electricity. This will create jobs and probably halt the "Kayayo" in the South.

Third, we now have the University of Development Studies (UDS) in the North. Is that not a useful achievement of the Northern Politicians? Yet there is more room for improvement. Universities are fed by the primary and secondary schools. Both the JJ and Koffour regimes have given us something especially structures in developing the pre university educational sector through the efforts of our politicians. Yet there is more room for improvement. I remember quite well that most districts in the Northern regions had their best JSS and SSS grades far worse than the worse grades of some Southern schools. It follows logically that, if our performances in JSS and SSS continue to be as they are now then UDS will be dominated by only the Southerners thus defeating its purpose. The job for the current politicians and all of us is to contribute to change the poor performances. Our politicians have a major role but we do have ours that in no small way will contribute to raising intellectuals for the North.

The NPP regime made its own contributions and as I am currently residing outside the country, I am not as familiar to their contributions as I am to those of P/NDC. On my several visits to Ghana, what I saw visible about NPP in the North was the construction of schools and other offices. The roads that were not done by the NDC were still in their old and more deteriorated conditions. For example, the Baptist mission hospital at Nalerigu has been the most useful hospital in the North. The best access to it is through Walewale yet this road has been virtually abandoned. Had the NPP Northern Politician identified this as a strategic project to counter NDC's projects, their performance in the last elections would have been far better than it was. However, the NPP contributions have not matched those of NDC as the last election made it clear. When NPP launched their poverty alleviation program and the sustainable agric project, I said to myself that NPP will surely use this as a weapon in the North. On my visits nothing of these could be seen visibly or hear people talking about it. If that was the failure of our Northern Politicians, I would not hesitate to agree to it. However, I would not call them enemies to the Northern developmental derive but perhaps they were ignorant of how this could change the course of life or simply were not powerful to see these projects extended to the North in full strength. Currently, the North is battling with shortage of food supply simply because of bad harvest from year to year. Our current politicians have challenge to push hard for the construction of irrigation dams in many districts of the North. The ball is now in the hands of the NDC, should they heed to this advice, they would be creating another sustainable strategy for the future of their party.

I will like to beg for taking you through such a long and boring discussion. Whenever, we criticize we must be honest. We should acknowledge what has been done, point out what has not been done and give suggestions for what should be done now. This is what I tried to put forward in my article. If the readers have understood it in this way then my purpose is served. Nevertheless, I am writing not for any political party but just to give a bit of my contribution. I will be looking forward to your corrections of my misconceptions. Thanks

By: Umar Bawah ubawah@yahoo.com