Youth Groups in Northern Region Urged to Fight Against Destructive Violence

Jewul Bisolna Titus

The Konkomba Youth Association (KOYA) has called on all the youth associations of the various tribal groups in the Northern Region to join forces to fiercely fight against the frequent outbreak of destructive violence leading to lose of human lives and valuable properties.

The National Executives of the Konkonba Youth Association said that they are particularly worried about the negativities and violence associated with the people of the north, which they said were affecting the standards of education, quality healthcare, socio-economic standards of the people as well as infrastructural development. 

The KOYA Executives therefore announced their resolve to set the agenda for the unification of the youth of the various tribes in the north so as to bring back home the peace and unity that had eluded the area for several decades now. KOYA is now mobilizing the necessary resources both human and financial to carry out the plan. 

Speaking in an interview with Savannahnewse on the sidelines of the official inauguration of the Tamale branch of the KOYA at the Warders Canteen in Tamale, the General Secretary of the Konkomba Youth Association, Mr. Jewul Titus Bisolna vehemently stated that the youth of the north could no longer continue to destroy themselves through needless wars and destructive conflicts which are mostly masterminded by a few selfish and unscrupulous political and traditional leaders just to satisfy their personal interest.

He indicated that the KOYA which was established in 1977 on the principles of promoting peace, unity and development, was working closely with the National, Regional and District Security Councils to also deal with needless chieftaincy issues, land disputes, inter and intra tribal issues which are mostly carried out by the energetic youth.

“Northern Region has gotten to a stage where nobody wants to come here. If you look at everywhere in Ghana, you can see people are struggling to build better houses, schools, hospitals and roads to ensure that their communities are developing, but we are in northern region fighting everyday over trivial issues and killing one another and destroying or burning our own properties. These things ought to stop and it is the youth who must take the lead because the future belongs to us but not the elderly”.

The Konkomba Youth Leaders declared a total war against what they described as attempts by some unscrupulous leaders in the region, who were wasting millions of cedis to purchase guns and other dangerous weapons for the youth to cause destruction instead of building their talents and teaching them about the rich traditions and culture of the area.

Mr. Jewul Bisolna Titus emphasized that the youth of the north would not wait further for those mischievous leaders to tear the region apart for their selfish gains.

“If they are indeed good leaders who have our welfare and the development of the north at heart they should rather buy us food, educate us and teach us our rich culture which is the only way we can unite and bring back the lost image of our region”. 

He blamed the leaders, particularly the traditional and the opinion leaders, for the protracted tension and conflicts in the Northern region arising out of chieftaincy disputes, land disputes, hegemonic tendencies based on historical past, political differences and competition for limited economic and social opportunities among others.

The KOYA General Secretary insisted that when all was set and done for the various association leaders of the various ethnic groups to come together as one big entity or body, they would strongly march positively forward to secure the peace, unity, development and quality education for the people, particularly the youth.

According to Mr. Bisolna Titus, the people in the region needed more tools for farming, more teaching and learning materials, more equipment for technical and vocational studies, more basic tools for construction and balanced food on their tables, but not weapons for destruction.

He appealed to the Chiefs in the region to also desist from indiscriminate selling of lands including state lands in order to secure a brighter future for the youth. 

Most chiefs in the north have over the years engaged in multiple sales of lands to different developers resulting in several disputes. 

However, six new executives were ushered into office as Northern Regional Executives of KOYA. The New President, Mr. Christopher Ali said that the KOYA was established to deliberate on issues affecting the Konkomba Youth and Northern Region in general and also seeks to promote development, peace, unity and culture of the people. The Association he said also seeks to outline the roles and responsibilities of the youth in the area.

Mr. Ali promised to unite the Konkomba youth in Tamale and promote quality education among them. 

He admonished the Konkomba Youth to live peacefully with other tribes wherever they found themselves and also support the development in that area.

The first herculean task for the KOYA Northern Regional branch executives led by Mr. Christopher Ali after the official inauguration was to visit Nakpanduri and its surrounding communities where there is a current dispute between Bimobas and Mamprusis in the area.

The KOYA leaders are lobbying through the leaderships of the feuding factions to ensure there is total peace in Nakpanduri.

“If I Have My Way, I’ll Stop Mining In Gbani”

“If I have my way, I’ll stop mining in Gbani. We have not benefitted anything from the Chinese people ever since they came to mine here,” says Elisabeth, one of many dissenting voices in Gbani, a mining community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region of Ghana.

With such a rocky topography, farming as the main source of livelihood in this village is a difficult task, considering the fact that farm implements used by locals are very rudimentary. The largest piece of land one can cultivate is less than three acres, checks by Savannahnews revealed during a recent visit to the area.

After the rainy season, a greater percentage of young people in Gbani travel to the southern part of the country in search of greener pastures. The remaining ones engage in galamsey,   illegal mining– which is one of the few sources of making money aside shea butter processing. 

According to Elisabeth, ever since the Shanxi Mining Company came to Gbani to search for gold, the locals have not been spared the daily air and noise pollutions caused by extreme blasting accompanied with earth-tremors that caused fear and panic amongst them.

“Thick black smoke and dusts come out from the pit after every blast and engulf the whole community. We don’t know what we’re breathing in…. We fear for our lives because there is no clinic or hospital in this village. Anytime we’re sick, we travel to Datuku or Tongo….20 kilometres to treat ourselves”, she said in a chat with this reporter.

The coming of the Chinese mining firm, Shanxi– into Gbani for about seven years now, has led to simmering tension among some locals as well as between locals and the company. There have been a few disturbances in the past leading to the arrest of some people, all because of the mining activities.

The National Coalition on Mining (NCOM) together with its local partners in the Northern Sector led by Zasilari Ecological Farms Project (ZEFP) and Tuona Pogaba Women (TUPACO) is currently engaging with regulating bodies such as the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that the emerging environmental problems in Gbani are addressed.

Issifu Sulemana Jobila who represents ZEFP told Savannahnews in an interview that, under no circumstances should inhabitants of Gbani suffer any environmental problems as a result of mining activities carried out by either galamsey operators or multinationals.

According to him, the air and noise pollution situation if not checked, could lead to serious health implications in the near future and urged the Talensi District Assembly as well as the various regulating bodies to take charge in order to ensure that the proper thing is done.

Meanwhile, a Human Resource Manager of Shanxi Joseph Anokye in sharing his personal views on developments between the community and the company, said Shanxi since it started operations has sunk ten boreholes for inhabitants of Gbani, donated seventy desktop computers to some government institutions and 114 classroom furniture to St. Anthony School.

He however, lamented that, but for a legal dispute regarding how compensations should be paid for land claimed by the company as a result of the mining concession acquired, a lot of development projects would have been provided for the people under its corporate social responsibility programme. 

Mr. Anokye appealed to all the inhabitants of Gbani to come together for a peaceful resolution of any dispute between them and Shanxi so that the company can provide them with more social amenities.

Man Banished By Wungu Naba Petitions State Attorney

Fuseini Bawa

Fuseini Bawa, a native of Walewale in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region of Ghana, who was recently banished by the Paramount Chief of the area, Wungu Naba Alhaji Saaka Sulemana, has petitioned the State Attorney in the office of the Attorney-General to personally show interest in his case.

According to a three-page document intercepted by The Daily Dispatch dated March 17, 2014, Fuseini said his attention has been drawn to the “unfair and questionable manner” in which the prosecutor (Walewale Police Commander) is handling the case involving him as well as conducting his prosecutorial duties in relation to the whole trial.

It would be recalled that, The Daily Dispatch on March 3 this year, published a story headlined “WUNGU NABA BANISHES MAN, FAMILY OF 23 IN WALEWALE”. The story was about the banishment of Fuseini Bawa and 23 other family members by the Wungu Naba on December 24, 2013.

Fuseini who is a businessman and deals in cattle was banished together with his wives, children and other family members by the Wungu Naba following a threat by the former to sue the latter in a law court.

According to the story, Fuseini’s decision to sue the Wungu Naba was because the latter seized his 26 cattle after a Fulani man in whose care the animals were ran away from Walewale.

Wungu Naba

The Wungu Naba after banishing Fuseini and his family also reportedly seized the residential house including four other uncompleted houses as well as two boutiques belonging to him. 

Fuseini was not the only one in this predicament. There were several other people who had their cattle with Amadu Braimah (Fulani man) and the animals were all reportedly seized by the Wungu Naba.

In his petition, Fuseini recounted that, there were heavily armed police men on the day the cattle were to be distributed to their owners following a committee’s hearing on the case. When he showed up, his name was never mentioned even though he saw his cattle in the kraal being grabbed by different people who were the supposed owners. 

According to him, he really does not know who is behind all these impediments and frustrations in his life as well as his business. Thus, he appealed to the State Attorney to take up the matter and follow it to ensure that justice is served.

Plastic Waste: The Mess of Our Time

Can you remember the last time you went for shopping? Did you get one of those black polythene bags to carry the goods you bought? When you took the polythene bag home, it turned from a container for the goods you purchased into waste; how did you dispose of it?    In this report, our Correspondent Joseph Ziem examines what has gone wrong with the obsessive use of plastic materials especially polythene bags by residents in the Tamale Metropolis and Ghanaians in general.

Mahama Yusif is one of many peasant farmers who own a farm at Gbalahi, a rural community in the North-Eastern part of Tamale. These farmlands lay closer to the city’s only landfill site, thus are exposed to constant pollution through plastic waste. 

He told Savannahnews in an interview that, before they till or prepare their farmlands for sowing, they have to pick the polythene bags which have filled almost the entire place otherwise the soil will prove less fertile or supportive to crops when they germinate.

“Crops are not as strong as usual when they germinate. This is because the polythene bags prevent their roots from permeating deep into the soil and when that happens, it disturbs the crops health”, he said. 

Too many plastic wastes on a farmland obviously affects crop cultivation in many ways according to an officer in charge of Plant Protection at the Northern Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Christopher Yerikari Akai.

“If you take the soil life—we have micro organisms that are living in the soil and some are very beneficial to the growth of crops....we have the very common ones we call earthworm ….all these are beneficial organisms in the soil and when they are prevented from getting sufficient air...they will also not exist and their very important role in soil nutrients formation will be affected”, Christopher explained. 

In Ghana, the minimum market price for a polythene bag is five pesewas making it affordable for traders and other sellers to serve their customers by using it to wrap the goods they buy. According to Salamatu, a shop owner in Tamale “when someone buys something from you, you just put what the person bought inside a polythene bag and off he/she goes... because it’s affordable as compared to baskets which many can’t buy”.

Polythene bags were introduced into the Ghanaian society few decades ago to replace paper bags which were used for packing light items. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – Accra, the nation’s capital alone generates as much as 270 tonnes of plastic wastes every day.

Jimah Loury, a Programmes Officer at the Northern Regional office of the EPA, said plastic materials take a longer period to decompose, depending on the type of plastic. “Research has shown that it is not something that easily degrades....it is not biodegradable. Some research says it takes between 50 and 400 years to degrade.....so excessive plastic use can cause a lot of environmental problems”, he stated. 

The Director of Waste Management, Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Sampson Akwertey in an interview disclosed that, the city generates about 250 tonnes of solid waste daily and out of this, plastic waste constitutes nearly 50 percent.

 “There have been some efforts to look at what we can do about plastics”, he said, adding “Tamale has a small recycling plant owned by a private person who currently collects only the degradable materials to produce compost manure while plastic materials are used to fill the land”, Sampson noted.

Currently, it cost the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly over GH¢2.5 million each year on waste management alone. This is expected to bloat in the coming years especially because some residents have adopted an indiscipline posture towards good sanitary practices. When walking through houses in the city, it is common to see polythene bags littered almost everywhere and choked in gutters. The little rainfall, and there is deluge or stagnant water serving as breeding grounds for mosquitoes. 

Arguably, the dirtiest vicinities in Tamale could include the following: Tishegu/Ward K, Kalpohini/Sangani, Kukuo, Duanayili, Changli, Gumani, Jisonaayili, Kanvilli, Vitting, Dabokpa, Koblimahagu, Sakasaka, Nyohini, Lamashegu, Gumbihini, Gurugu, Tamale Polytechnic, Choggu, Bulpiela, Zogbeli, Nyanshegu, jakarayili, among others. Polythene bags are engulfing these places by the day.

It is therefore not surprising that, the plastic wastes situation has caught the eye of President John Mahama as he recently expressed grave concern over what he described as a social problem. “We are drowning in plastics....if we can’t find the solution we might have to ban it completely. It has polluted our environment and this is not only an urban phenomenon…you go to the smallest village in this country and there are plastics lying all over the place”, he lamented.

According to Jimah, plastic wastes affect the beauty of the land. “Everywhere, there is plastic....no tourist will like to visit this country in future because our beaches are now full of plastic wastes ....and this doesn’t  speak well of Ghana”.

But what is the alternative? A lecturer in Environmental Practice at the Tamale Polytechnic Abudu Abdul Ganiyu, suggested a return to the old ways. “I remember growing up as a child, anytime my mother was going to the market she carried with her a basket. That basket could be made of wood or plastic but at the end of the day it is not something that could easily be disposed off. So she buys everything at the market square, covers it with a neat cloth and brings it home.”  

However, Jimah of the EPA rather thinks that introducing a tax system on plastic products like it exists in other countries, would discourage people from using polythene bags.