Three regions constitute the north of Ghana: Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions. These three regions lie in the Sahel and Guinea Sudan Climatic enclaves having a population approximated at around 5 million.
The North of Ghana has a mean rainfall figures of between 600 to 1100mm per annum with a long period of dry season otherwise known as ‘Harmattan’. The ‘Harmattan’ is usually followed by periodic torrential rains which occasionally result in floods in some areas.
This affects food crop production and other agricultural activities in the area. Since the main occupation of the people in the three regions is agriculture the people are left with no other option of making income after the single maximum rainfall normally registered from May to September elapses.
Peasant farming is therefore the main profession and trade for the populace of the North. Incidentally, food crop farmers are among the very poor in Ghana today. The crops they grow are maize, yam, millet, cassava, soya bean and rice. Other livelihood activities include fetching of firewood, Shea nut picking and butter extraction, charcoal burning, and the rearing of animals such as sheep, goats and cattle.
They also take care of birds such as fowls in small numbers. Both men and women are engaged in farming activities which hitherto has been the preserve of men. It is noteworthy that the population group that is the engine to these farming activities is the Youth. The nature of this occupation, (peasant farming) degenerated by adverse weather conditions and the rapid depletion in soil fertility, makes them unable to produce on a large scale to meet the demand of the larger market throughout the year. Poverty has been very endemic all over the north making it the most poverty stricken areas amongst the 10 regions of Ghana.
Undoubtedly, poverty has deprived most of the populace of the North of several opportunities to a dignified life. Education has been far lagging behind that of southern Ghana by a century. Access to education and enrollment levels has with time not made significant progress at all levels including the secondary and tertiary levels. The 2003 Ghana Statistical Service Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) Survey indicated that access to secondary education was recorded at 7.9 percent in the Upper East Region as against 63.4 and 56.1 percentage in Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions respectively.
Invariably the lack of development in the three northern regions of Ghana is a major factor that significantly inhibits Ghana's development efforts. There is a whole gamut of sour perceptions and misconceptions about the people of northern descent in Ghana. Honestly, this is due to bad media and gross ignorance on the part of many others. This scenario is directly proportional to the perception of the West about Africans.
The imagery people have about a particular group of people or a geographical area impact a lot on how they view it as a tourism and investment destination. In today’s globalised marketplace the scramble for investment and tourism is intensifying and brands have become more often than not the conduits for communicating people’s identities.
Groups of people including countries all over the world are determining and re-shaping their identities as they compete with neighbours to woo investors, to gain power, influence and prestige. It is thus imperative for traditional rulers and the elite in an area like Northern Ghana that seeks technological and socio-economic transformation to adopt branding strategies to attract the desirable political, economic, cultural and social development.
Branding by a group of people from a particular geographical setting especially in contemporary times is not a novelty and should therefore not be a huge or burgeoning mission to accomplish. In fact traditional rulers and educated elites across the length and breadth of Ghana have embarked on this and are currently ripping the tangible and intangible benefits. Much needs to be done to disabuse the minds of many in order to reduce the negativities that fuel the perceptions such as chieftaincy and ethnic violence, insecurity, low productivity, poverty and deprived social amenities.
The above could be achieved when northerners resolve to put an end to ethnicity, the culture of impunity, political patronage, greed and self-vested interests. The North abounds in competent, wise and intelligent men and women of knowledge and integrity. However, these unique qualities over the years have not been translated and transmitted into higher forms of development because of the reasons aforementioned.
There was a time when it was the hope, wish and prayer of every responsible northerner living elsewhere within or outside the country that their wards are sent back home to be nurtured and groomed in the northern values and culture. It was integral to the legacy you bequeathed to your ward. Clearly you wanted them to imbibe the culture, tradition and values that made us the unique crop of people we are.
The leadership in Northern Ghana must be interested in the creation of a consistent and coherent system of identity in tandem with current trends in the global system. This is therefore a challenge for all northerners especially the youth because they constitute the leadership of the next generation and thus, the nucleus of the success or otherwise of such a generation. Posterity may not forgive the youth of northern Ghana wherever they may find themselves if they fail or renege in that regard. The northern youth ought to play a lead role in championing an attractive, consistent and coherent identity more than ever before by any group of people in Ghana.
Because it is perceived that Southern Ghana is way ahead in terms of development, thus we need to play a catch up. This is essential to bridging the north-south developmental gap.
Brand Northern Ghana should be an identity that is home grown, proactively distilled, well interpreted, internalized and projected on a national and global scale in order to gain both national and international acceptance and to create a positive regional image. The Northern brand strategy therefore should be an approach that seeks to defining the most pragmatic, most aggressive, most competitive and most persuasive tactical vision for the North.
Brand Northern Ghana would be very vital to the success of the Savanna Accelerated Development Strategy. It must harmonize and demonstrate clear, simple and differentiating propositions often built around emotional qualities expressing some kind of superior norms, and put premium on values and behavioural patterns which can be orally and visually symbolized in earnest.
The three regions need to achieve an appreciable level of unity of purpose and adopt a scheme of marketing know-how, in order to be able to establish actionable and measurable objectives and strategies, which are plausible for attracting the relevant tourism and investment.
The image problems of Northern Ghana perhaps are founded in the prevailing high illiteracy rates and the existing chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts. The illiteracy rate is quite disconcerting because an illiterate dominated society is likely not to resort to dialogue in order to resolve differences in interest but resort to brute measures. Also, the three regions according to some normative opinions are about half a century behind in development due to violent conflicts emanating from chieftaincy and ethnicity.
As such, for holistic rebranding of Northern Ghana to flourish, and in order for the Savanna Accelerated Development Agenda not to be an illusion, pragmatic actions must be adopted to lift a large proportion of the population of Northern Ghana out of the illiteracy cohort. Basically, there is the need to focus more on education, mental reorientation and awareness, and the integration of the ‘Can Do’ spirit in our developmental process.
This calls for a structural overhauling of the four campuses of the University for Development Studies to meet modern standards. The needed infrastructure and facilities must be provided by government and the University duly accredited to run all programmes including Law, Engineering, Architecture, Journalism and Communication Studies, and Business Administration as ran by its counterparts in Southern Ghana.
A well branded Northern Ghana requires a deliberate, vibrant and well coordinated and multifaceted communication system with capable and competent breed of journalists and public relations practitioners equipped with trends in modern marketing strategies and public relations. Well researched and truthful information about the three northern regions should be disseminated to the rest of the country and beyond to attract the required investment which will translate into rapid and revolutionary growth and development. This requires the a conscientious and concerted efforts of all stakeholders involve in the development of Northern Ghana and not the creation of another bureaucracy or parastatals in this regard.
The rhetoric and verbal homage should give way for action. Enough of the talk lets walk the talk.
Authour: MUHAMMED A. YAKUBU
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONER AND A CONCERN NORTHERNER.
africansaphar@gmail.com
0244875783
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