Don’t pull down another man’s child – Deputy AG

Deputy Attorney General and Member of Parliament for Tempane, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, has told individuals and groups who are in the habit of pulling down determined and successful people in Ghana’s northernmost regions similar fates await their children as inevitable rewards for their actions.

There is an undeniable tag on the deprived north as a society where citizens who take delight in crushing the good dreams of fellow natives far outnumber those who would support any individual or organisation to achieve their goals.

There are reports of victims of ‘Institutionalised envy’ and pull-down plots (PDP) whose achievements have been so badly crushed hope of recovery is very slight. And among such victims are those who tend to shift focus to the developed south to explore new environments considered both ‘welcoming’ and ‘enabling’ enough for a re-launch of their potentials, proposals and plans.

In Mr. Kpemka’s words, the north would continue to bleed from the self-inflicted wounds of underdevelopment and hardships until its people change from being roadblocks into being bridges to link compatriots from poverty to plenty. He was speaking at the 6th edition of the National Peace Durbar and Awards Ceremony organised in the Upper East region by the Northern Youth for Peace and Development (NYUPED).

“It has often been said that we the people of the north like awarding PhD to our sons and daughters who are struggling to go high. And that PhD is not the academic PhD. It is the PhD of ‘Pull him Down’ where people simply try to pull down others who are struggling to climb the ladder to bring development. Please, if you struggle to pull down the son of another man, when your son struggles to climb, he’ll be brought down, and none of us would ever climb the tree to pluck the ripe fruits for the benefits of our people,” the legislator said.

He further advised, “So, whoever is struggling to climb, let us put our hands together and assist the person to climb that tall tree to pluck those fruits for the benefits of all our people. This PhD syndrome must and ought to stop now if the three regions of the north would have to match up with the development that we have in the south.”

The MP was among some 24 public figures awarded at the ceremony for their outstanding contributions towards the development of the country, especially in the north. The event was themed: “Saluting National Icons whose Socio-Political, Economic and Cultural Achievements Engendered Peace and Development in the Three Northern Regions especially and Ghana as a Whole.”

Peace has no substitute

Mr. Kpemka also urged northerners to join hands together to put out the flames of violent conflicts which had continued to plague parts of the north, giving the entire area a bad name and scaring investors away.

“That commodity called peace is without substitute. Peace is the key ingredient for the development of any nation. Peace is one ingredient, when it is available, the underprivileged, the children, the vulnerable are able to develop themselves. On this score, I implore NYUPED to move the gear to another level and ensure accelerated preaching of peace messages across the three regions of the north so that any time the three regions of the north are heard in the news, we are heard for the purposes of peace, development and unity and not for purposes of self-destruction.

“Already, we are the most deprived in the country. And if any time we are heard in this country we are heard for bad reasons, we are seen to be a land of doom. It is my expectation that our wonderful array of chiefs and traditional leaders, supported by the political heads and opinion leaders and assemblypersons, will take the fight for peace to another level so that in 2018 anything that is heard about the three regions of the north would be peace, peace and peace so that together we can move forward and get our share of the national development that we aspire for ourselves,” said the Deputy Attorney General.

Northerners told to eschew divisiveness

The lawmaker ended his speech with an emphasis on the need for Ghanaians of northern ancestry to unite for the collective good of the north and of the country at large.

“It is imperative on all of us as sons and daughters of the north to become good ambassadors of the three regions of the north and Ghana as a whole. We need unity. We need togetherness. But we cannot do this if we divide amongst ourselves. With dirty, parochial, ethnic and divisive tendencies, we shall not succeed in our cry for development of our regions,” Mr. Kpemka stressed.

He added: “Let us dream for that day when nobody in the north would be talking about the Sissala man, when nobody would be talking about a Dagomba, when nobody would be talking about a Kusasi, when nobody would be talking about a Mamprusi, when nobody would be talking about a Frafra, when nobody would be talking about a Kassena or Nankana, when nobody would be talking about a Gonja, when nobody would be talking about a Kokomba, when nobody would be talking about a Bimoba, when nobody would be talking about a Builsa and when nobody would be talking about a Wala man. All we would live to see is a united three regions of the north ready to take our destiny into our hands for the peaceful development of our area.”