Informed opinion indicates that Northern Ghana, is bleeding and has turned into a killing field. On a daily basis, stories abound in the media space of mindless and gruesome killings in one part of the region or the other.
Though they are pockets of disturbances in other parts of the country, yet this once peaceful part of the nation has degenerated at a pace that is frightening.
Only a fortnight ago, the Embassy of the United States of America (USA), had to warn its citizens to stay away from traveling to the Northern part of the country, because of insecurity.
Not too long ago in the Northern regional capital, Tamale, it was the police who had taken the law into their hands, when they shot into an unregistered vehicle after the occupants allegedly refused a police stop, when led to the death of 18-year-old Abdul Hakim Yakubu.
The situation in Bawku, keeps threatening the security of this country. Bawku is always in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Not too long ago, Dagbon also used to be in the news for the same reasons, until a committee of eminent chiefs were put together headed by Asantehene, Otumfuor Osei Tutu.
It is obvious in the opinion of this newspaper that, securing peace is not a job for the government and its agencies alone as is wrongly assumed. Neither does the solution to it call for finger-pointing. It poses a threat to the life of the people and must not accept words and actions that tend towards grandstanding.
Conflict anywhere is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. And that is why we insist that those who have the habit of igniting conflict in Bawku must desist.
Information from the Ghana Statistical Service on living standards in Ghana reveals that the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions continue to have the highest levels of poverty in the country.
Efforts over the years have been made towards poverty reduction in the these regions but poverty still remains high with more than half of the population of the regions still living below the poverty line.
This newspaper is worried that the traditional three northern regions, have the lowest human capital indices in the country. This is occasioned largely by the impact of the over a decade of conflicts across the regions.
It is our considered opinion that there is the need for concerted efforts to change the tide.
We call on the political, religious, traditional and other stakeholders in the North, especially Bawku to give peace a chance.
