By Herbert Krapa

It was the fourth in the series of the Ferdinand Ayim Memorial Lectures last Monday, at the Alisa Hotels, Accra, and I tried not to blink, nor move, as I listened attentively to the ever eloquent Mustapha Hamid Bawre. He was speaking on: “Islam, Politics and Development: Negotiating the Future of Dagbon.” Let me congratulate him one more time for the much needed education. If for nothing at all, all of us listening to him were attentive throughout the lecture. On how Islam relates to politics, the lecture was a real eye opener for me, as Mustapha took us way back into the 16th Century and navigated his way through to the 21st. But on the development of the north, many of us were agonized by the painful and shameful reminder of the under development of Northern Ghana. He had these to share: “240 children die in Savelugu-Nanton, out of 1,000 live births. This far exceeds the national average of 100 to 1,000 live births. 227 die in Yendi out of 1,000 live births and 208 die in Tolon-Kumbungu. In Tamale, 50.8% of the population has never been to school, in Gushegu-Karaga, 84.3%, in Zabzugu, 79.6%, in Yendi, 73.7%, in Savelugu, 74.5% and in Tolon 79.9%. Over 72% of the people of Dagbon list their occupation as farming, but we know that there is virtually no serious agricultural activity going on. This is what has led to the massive migration of the youth to the south to become labour hands on cocoa farms and head porters.”

I also found that: the three northern regions; Northern, Upper West and Upper East, have experienced virtually no improvements and have indeed seen some increases in poverty over the years. Close to 90% of the population of the Upper East region is poor, together with 84% of the Upper West and almost 70% of the Northern Region. I found that even the limited natural resources of the three northern regions are not fully exploited: about 70-75% yet to be exploited. A critical analysis of the determinants of poverty in the Northern regions showed that they require important policy interventions to address poverty, mainly more jobs and income-generating activities for the poor. This requires that the government pursue policies that promote growth, especially in rural areas and especially in sectors that can offer employment opportunities to the poor. Furthermore, there is need for increased investments in the social sectors, especially education and health and a more focused effort to produce a skilled labor force.

As I read the statistics on and on, I realised that the situation is sad and dire and cannot be described as anything short of an emergency. I have been to northern Ghana severally, and therefore have a good appreciation of what these statistics mean. To them, it goes beyond statistics written out in black and white for research purposes, and it is against this critical background that Nana Akufo-Addo proposed the establishment of the Northern Development Authority to put together and oversee the implementation of the plan for the rapid, integrated development of the three regions of northern Ghana. When he first mooted the idea, now Vice President, John Mahama pooh-poohed it, arguing that we could use $1billion dollars (which is the amount Akufo-Addo proposed to put into the fund over the first five years of its establishment) to off-set Ghana Telecom’s debt for example. But on Friday the 25th of July 2008, Akufo-Addo went ahead to deliver a lecture at the Tamale Campus of the University for Development Studies titled THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE NORTH –AN AGENDA FOR CHANGE.

Then the NDC made an about turn and came up with Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). Whether they are committed to the principles on which SADA was established is an obvious observation we can all easily make. They promised to inject an initial amount of 200 million Ghana Cedis into the fund at its start and subsequently, to put in 100 million cedis annually for 20 years. In addition, they said they were going to organise a donor conference on SADA to raise an additional 200 million Ghana cedis for the fund. To this day, they have only injected 25million Ghana cedis. Even so, the Vice President directed that five million Ghana cedis be taken from this to rehabilitate victims of the recent floods in the north, which indeed is against the background that the existence of this money is even suspect. Nana Addo puts it best when he made the point in his Northern Development Plan that “we have an emergency (on our hands) as a nation regarding the development of the north. The difference that exists today between the north and the south is not a gap, it is a chasm. It is blight on the honour of our nation that must shame and then spur us all to action.”

An emergency it is.

In two years and counting, the Mills-Mahama NDC administration has toyed sadly with the development of the North. They have demonstrated their obvious insensitivity to the woes and plights of our brothers and sisters, and yet, they continue to say that their better Ghana agenda is on course. Bridging the development gap between the North and South is a non negotiable matter. The talk cannot continue forever. The time is past, when the development of the northern parts of our country must be at the heart of our decentralization programme.

Akufo-Addo promised to submit to Parliament within 100 days, the Northern Affirmative Action (NAA) bill, to demonstrate the NPP’s recognition of the underdevelopment of the three northern regions and the urgent need for a national programme to bridge the widening development gap between the country’s north and south. The Northern Development Authority as proposed by Nana Addo and the NPP was meant to be a tool for savannah transformation. It included amongst others, Northern Mechanisation of Agriculture, Northern Private Entrepreneurship of Agriculture, Northern Food Marketing and Storage and Northern Industrialisation. Nana Addo believes that the north can become a bread basket for the rest of the country. Mills on the other hand thinks that until the killer(s) of the Ya-Na are found, the development of the north must be made a secondary matter. President Mills should know that developing the north is an emergency that requires urgent attention and therefore cannot be ceded for any other thing. Finding the Ya-Na’s killer(s) can be done alongside taking concrete steps to bringing transformation to the north.

The problem on our hands regarding the north is not one we cannot solve. Bridging the gap, difficult as it might seem, has to be done. A talented group of our country people cannot be left unattended to. We cannot continue to fail them.

I’ve been places in the north, where men and women have to drink ‘pito’ as dinner, where they have to wait another market day to sell one fowl for the upkeep of the household for a week, where houseflies swarm little children in everything they do.

When small pox was eradicated in 1977, it was considered the single greatest humanitarian effort of the century. We can do it again and those in power must lead the way.

hkrapa@gmail.com