Just Imagine awaking to the sounds of sporadic gunshots day and night.
Just Imagine being left with no sense of ambition and glimmer of hope for tomorrow. Just Imagine learning amidst utter pandemonium and anarchy. Just Imagine losing one or both parents and children needlessly during a conflict. Just Imagine your place of abode and properties burnt to ashes at full tilt. This is the high price the good people of Bawku are currently paying for the Bawku’s conflict. Some selective trigger-happy miscreants who may be a few cards shy of a full deck – behave recklessly and violently at the slightest provocation have taken the entirety of the Bawku Municipal and its environs to ransom and the authorities were and still are in the state of incommunicado or freeze.
Heretofore, over 10000 persons I was told have been displaced in Bawku since it maiden conflict broke out in the early 80s whilst about 50 persons have been confirmed dead in the not too distant past skirmishes. Natives of Bawku in the Upper East Region of Ghana consisting of different ethnic groups such as the Mossi, the Bissas, the Dagombas, the Frafras, the Yangas, the Grumas, etc including the two warring factions – Mamprusis and Kusasis have sustained varying degrees of injuries. The renewed clashes between the two prominent tribes occurred in Bawku which used to be the central business hub of the Upper East Region had turned into a ghost town.
The Minister for the Interior, Hon. Ambrose Dery had by Executive Instrument renewed the curfew hours imposed on Bawku Municipality and its environs in the Upper East Region from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am whilst calling on Chiefs, Elders, Opinion Leaders, Youth and people of the area to exercise restraint in the face of the challenges confronting them as well as to use non-violent means to channel their energies into ensuring peace. And the Upper East Regional Security Council led by the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Mr. Stephen Yakubu followed suit by barring the complete usage of motorcycles in Bawku after it earlier ban on pillion riders did not yield any tangible results. Meanwhile, there is a total ban on all persons in the afore-mentioned communities and their environs from carrying arms, ammunition or any offensive weapon and any persons found with any arms or ammunition will be arrested and prosecuted. Amidst the chaos and topsy-turviness, a good number of the indigenes have fled to neighboring towns like Bolgatanga, Navrongo, Burkina Faso, Togo and whatnot.
Without a scintilla of doubt when conflict breaks out, the dangers and the disadvantages that come with it are mammoth for young ones. Adolescence is the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19, which in itself is a challenging stage of young people’s lives. It is a unique stage of human development and an important time for laying the foundations of good health. Adolescents experience rapid physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth. Thus, the anguish and ordeal experienced as a result of the conflict, the lack of social appropriateness and serviceability are detrimental to both the physical and mental well- being of these adolescents and many have unforeseen and undesirable lasting effects on them.
Truly, women and children are the most vulnerable in areas of conflict due to their defenseless exposure to the dangerously insecure circumstances. The adverse or unwanted secondary effect of the conflicts is usually massive and the women and children in these conflict prone areas as it is the case of Bawku had no choice but to ride with the punches. They are left in abject melancholy espoused with psychological smashups as and when the tribal attacks and reprisal attacks erupts.
In all such instances, their future is desolated and exposed; swept by cold winds. The lives and well-being of the next generations are being toyed with impunity without remorse. Can there ever be a better Bawku when the education, security and health of inhabitants are in total shambles? How bright is the future of the unborn generation if the “future” is left in to grow in such violently disturbed and agitated environment?
In advancement, women and children suffer health effects in these areas and with the added bad experience of conflict and migration can result in complications and poor health. The women and children of Bawku are purely the victims of disturbances and are usually exposed to physical and psychological trauma, hunger, poor shelter, injuries, loss and death of families and possession and are compelled by and large to subject themselves to praying for basic amenities from every walks of life to survive. People homes were burnt down, bridges and culverts were broken, farmlands were destroyed and all these are causing devastating effect on our economy. Inflating our rural-urban rate in the process and putting a halt to the domestic, commercial and industrial activities as it drags the town into a state of impoverishment,
Be it as it would, all hope is not lost in Bawku. There is a lot we can do as a society and inhabitants of the town to salvage what is left of the town and bring it back to it heydays. Indubitably, conflict situations are normally not the same but you will agree with me that it always starts with the cognizance and thoughts of men hence embracing and inculcating the preamble of the constitution of United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Cultural ( UNESCO ) which says ” since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defense must be constructed”.
It is of paramount importance that all stakeholders, including NGOs, Peace Council, Leaders of religious and ethnics groups are brought together to work assiduously towards achieving the peace that we so much desired by employing all means necessary to bring all the ethnics groups of the town together including the warring factions, both the Mamprusis and the Kusasis into the realization that we are all but one people with a common destiny. In doing so, the bedrock of the society, that is the women and the mothers of these men should not be eighty-sixed in the peace-keeping process because they shoulder the responsibility of their families, and in this case, the men their husbands.
Let me borrow the words of Dr. Martin Luther king Jr when he said ” We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools”. Since time immemorial, there had never been a winner in conflict situations but losers. I urge all and sundry living within the Bawku Municipal and its environs, most importantly the warring factions to bury the hatchet and look beyond their parochial interest for the collective good of our young and future generations for there would not be any opportunities for the them to realize their potentials or prospects our forefathers envisaged for them lest we are hoisted by our own petard.
Nurudeen Saana Mumuni
The writer is a Medical Laboratory Professional and a native of Bawku