Chieftaincy Conflicts in Northern Ghana: A Challenge to National Stability

Abstract

The chieftaincy institution in Ghana has been rocked by several conflicts due to land litigation, political polarization along gate lines and over succession to the chicfship position. Even though Ghana is characterized more by a condition of stable peace than by conflict (Hughes 2003: 11). chieftaincy conflicts have become a disturbing phenomenon in the political landscape of the country. Ghanaians woke up on January 1,2008 to celebrate the New Year only to hear the beating of war drums at Bawku in the Upper. East Region of Ghana. The government immediately imposed a curfew on the town to curb a violent inter-ethnic dispute between the Kusasi and the Mamprusi ethnic groups. The heavy police detachment to the conflict area did not help matters, neither did the appeals from the Members of Parliament from the area. It took a heavy military detachment to the area coupled with the imposition of stringent curfew hours (from 3pm to 7am) before some calm could be restored to the Bawku township and neighbouring areas. The violence in Bawku is a clear reminder to Ghanaians that chieftaincy conflicts in any part of the country is a threat to national stability. The Bawku conflict is one of many such conflicts that have erupted in the country in the last decade. In Ghana, many communities are bedeviled with chieftaincy conflicts that are on the verge of erupting into violence and are likely to result in the destruction of property, injury and death. Dagbon, Wala, Wenchi, Ga, Anlo, Nanung (Bimbilla). Buipe, Yapei, Babato Kese, among others are just a few of the traditional areas that made, and continue to make headlines in Ghana, reminding us of chieftaincy conflicts that occurred in the past, those currently on-going, and others yet to explode in the near future. These conflicts divert the nation's attention and energies from fighting poverty, low enrolment in schools, hunger, diseases and ignorance that are the real enemies of Northern Ghana, the main area of focus of this paper.