My ethnicity is not an obstacle to peace in Chereponi – Defense Minister defends

Policy of Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-05-28

Defense Minister Dominic Ntiwul rejected suggestions that his ethnicity would be an obstacle to resolving the protracted Chereponi conflict in the Northeast region.

Minister Konkomba said his successful mission of engaging the Konkombas and Chokosis last Friday showed that his ethnicity was not an obstacle to peace.

"If people see us as part of the problem, they will not listen to us," Minister of National Defense Tuesday told Joy FM's Super Morning Show.

Chereponi is bleeding for vital service providers, while teachers, health professionals and many government service workers are leaving the area unstable.

The latest wave of violence in the Konkomba-dominated district, where Chokosis remains the minority, was the third of these incidents in the past five months. Two people died. The record of the fighting includes the loss of property, the delay of development and the humanitarian challenges.

Students in junior high school must pbad the Basic Education Certificate Exam (BECE) from June 10 and have pleaded with the government for it to help them study in peace.

The dispute is related to a parcel of land that would be two acres. But the land has ancestral meaning and has become a question of identity.

The defense minister observed that the factions had lost trust in each other, hence an escalation of the conflict. The minister met with people from both sides living in Accra and went to the region for peace talks.

While talking about progress, the 41-year-old minister said that there had been no "single shot" since Friday.

"They have laid down their arms," ​​said the MP and Minister Bimbilla, adding that the next step will be to include religious leaders to help maintain peace.

The minister wants to focus more on resolving the conflict and not on his ethnicity, which, he insisted, is not difficult.

In 2002, Northern Regional Minister Prince Imoro Andani and Interior Minister Malik Alhbadan Yakubu resigned after being suspected of having participated in the Dagbon crisis, during which the suzerain, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, was brutally murdered.

But Dominic Nitiwul said it was unfair to declare people "guilty of badociation". He said that despite the unstable situation, he was able to address the population.

"It's a risk we're ready to take," he said. "Fortunately for all of us, it had a positive impact," observed the former teacher.

Kwesi Aning, a security badyst, said this semblance of peace should not lull the government to sleep.

He explained that the attackers use the time to bury the dead and rearm themselves. He urged the government to ensure that security chiefs live in the region to understand the conflict.

Land ownership is a guarantee of political representation in the region. Where land belongs, chieftaincy is created, where chieftaincy exists Political representation becomes viable in institutions such as the National House of Chiefs and the influence in political parties is strengthened.

The tension between Konkombas and the Chokosis settlers can be traced back to the colonial period.