Don’t Be Silent Over The Happenings In Bawku, Speak Out If Your Hands Are Clean.

By Joseph Nana Yaw Cobbina

All of kusaug and the people of Bawku are in deep pain. Since November 2021, our people have felt abandoned and betrayed by the state.

Speaking at a news conference held in Accra, the President of Kusaug People Congress (KPC), Rev. Prof. John Azumah has stated emphatically that the conflict has dragged on all this while because of government inaction, mixed messaging and complicity. It is under the watch of the current government that Mamprusis in Bawku performed a funeral of a deposed chief who died way back in 1981.

According to him, all the previous administrations did not permit the performance of this funeral. Under this government, the Mamprusis performed the funeral in defiance of court injunction order.

He said they proceeded to Nalerigu in February 2023 and purportedly enskinned a rival chief for Bawku in total disregard of the fact that Bawku has a fully gazetted Chief who has been on the skin for the past 40 years.

The government declared the action illegal, and issued warrants of arrest against Nayiri and the purported enskinned chief, Seidu Abagre.

He further explained that Nayiri arrest warrant was almost immediately withdrawn. Abagre remained free and live in pain sight in Nalerigu.

President Akufo-Addo went to Nalerigu last month October 2024, purportedly apologised to Nayiri for the arrest warrant and promised that the fugitive Abagre will return to Bawku.

The following day, Abagre’s warrant was rescinded by the appeals court in Tamale, paving the way for him to return to Bawku, in a secret and cowardly fashion like a thief! Abagre’s return reignited the the violence which had subsided.

The government itself has said severally that what is happening in Bawku is criminality. Since November 2021, people brazenly commit crimes in broad daylight in the affected areas, firm themselves and share on social media. Yet, not a single person has been apprehended and successful prosecuted.

Rev.Prof. Azumah stated that the Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia government is therefore fully responsible for the ongoing bloodshed in Bawku and other parts of the Upper East Region and in Walewale, hometown of Dr Bawumia in the Northern region.

He was worried about the way and manner Dr Bawumia is keeping silent on the recent happening in Bawku.

Rev. Prof Azumah hinted that the Mamprusis and Kusasis are two completely different ethnic groups. They do not share a common kinship, language, culture, customs, traditions or ancestors. Mamprusis celebrate Damba while kusasi celebrate the Samanpiid festival.

According to him, a Mamprusis cannot embody kusasi customs and traditions, neither can he serve as a link to kusasi ancestors. Indeed, there is not a single Mamprusis person who by tradition qualifies to sacrifice to any of the gods in the kusasi land. All the traditional priests (Tendanas) are Kusasis.

How therefore can a Mamprusis be enskinned in Nalerigu in accordance with Mamprusi traditions and be exported to Bawku to rule over Kusasis? How can anyone serve as a chief in a land that they cannot offer sacrifice to a single deity of the land?

The truth of the matter is that Mamprusis feel emboldened to flout the laws of Ghana, because one of their own is the vice president.

“We believe it is the Bawumia factor that ignited and continues to fuel the Bawku conflict since November 2021. Kusasis harbour no animosity towards Mamprusis as an ethnic group” he argued.