Failure to arrest war mongers is causing Dagbon tension-Ya-Naa tells the Presidency Delegation.
The King of Dagbon, Ndan Ya-Naa, has attributed recent hate speeches on social media that can trigger an ethnic conflict to the security agencies’ inability to apprehend the people operating the social media handles spewing the hate speech. The king said stakeholders reneged on their promise to arrest the war mongers and therefore should consider their previous meeting a thing of ridicule.
Ndan Ya-Naa said the kingdom and the Defense Minister have trodden this path before and resolved to take certain actions, including the apprehension of the persons behind the ethnocentric comments. The Dagbon King in an address read by Chief of Zangbalun Traditional Area, Dr. Yakubu II, at a crucial meeting with a delegation from the Presidency led by the National Security Minister said they are back to square one to engage in another round of rhetoric.
Ndan Ya-Naa asked the delegation how far they want to go to ensure peaceful coexistence in the region and how far they intend to go to ensure that children complete their education and get employed in a emerging region like this. He demanded answers to convince him and the people of Dagbon and the Northern Region as a whole.
The King said that as traditional leaders of the region, their main duty and responsibility is to ensure the security and safety of their people and to continuously strive for an environment that will enhance the development of the region. Anything short of this Ndan Ya-Naa added makes them unworthy of holding themselves as leaders of their people.
The importance of the Presidential Delegation’s visit to the Gbewaa Palace, as the King noted, is not lost amidst the rumors of imminent war that have plagued the region for a couple of weeks now. These rumors that are being peddled through social media, he said, have intensified and become ugly as the perpetrators add their spin to them. This, the King observed, has made it difficult for the people in the region to go about their normal duties at home and on the farms, and worse because this is the peak of the farming season and almost all of them are engaged in the fields.
He told the delegation that, in one of such cases, when residents of Sunson fled at midnight to Yendi for protection two days ago, he personally sent his emissaries to find out, and it turned out to be a false alarm. The rumors, Ndan Ya-Naa said, have gotten students fleeing from school and workers leaving their places of work, and the consequences of what will become of children’s futures are clear.
He reminded the warlords that there would be no winners or losers. Dagbon and the Northern Region, Ndan Ya-Naa said, are for all, including those who hail from the region and those from other regions.
According to Ndan Ya-Naa, everyone has a responsibility to safeguard the region’s development and work for the total elimination of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, and maternal and infant mortality. These are the real enemies that everyone must direct their energies and resources towards, the King pointed out.
Source; Mohammed Ibrahim