A GNA feature by Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bawku (U/E), Dec. 29, GNA – At about 11:45 hours late Monday morning in November 2021, when 14-year-old Fuseini (pseudo name) a Junior High School pupil got knocked down by a motorbike on the Bawku highway in the Bawku Township.
The accident led to a fracture of his leg and arm. It has been more than two years, and the fractures are not completely healed.
“Although I can walk and use my hand to help myself, it still hurts me especially when I engage in tedious work. I went through pains at the initial stages, but after we sought local treatment, it became better,” he narrated his ordeal to the Ghana News Agency.
Fuseini and his mates of a school located in the Bawku Township (name withheld) on that faithful day had to abandon their academic work and seek shelter due to sporadic gunshots that were heard from the Township.
“Our teachers asked us to go home and stay indoors because it was not safe and so I was running and did not check well when I was crossing the road and the motorbike knocked me down, but he was able to help me to my house.
“We couldn’t go to the hospital because there were gunshots around that area, so the best was to go home,” he lamented.
Initially, the cause of the fight was unknown, but later that day, it was revealed that it was the renewed chieftaincy conflict that involved two tribal factions that had re-emerged.
Fuseini and his friends’ school and many basic schools within the Bawku Municipality were closed for several weeks and months to ensure safety of children and their teachers after the shooting incident and since then, Fuseini and colleague school mates remained at home without school.
Abdulai (not real name), father of Fuseini, told the GNA that due to their inability to afford a better school outside Bawku Township, his son has been in the house since 2021 and it was a source of worry to him.
“Some of his colleagues whose parents have money have taken their children to schools outside Bawku and some have even taken their children to Bolgatanga, and some have even relocated with their children to Bolgatanga.
“There is need to end this conflict because our children cannot go to school, the schools are always closed for several weeks and months whenever the clashes and gun shots start and all the time there is shooting in the Township.
“The teachers are running away, and we cannot even visit the hospital without having the fear that you could be shot and killed,” he lamented.
The story of Fuseini is not different from that of Mary (not real name), a 13-year-old girl also from Bawku Municipality who is currently schooling in one of the basic schools in Bolgatanga whom due to the conflict she and her mother were compelled to relocate from their house in Bawku to Bolgatanga because the only provision shop, her mother was depending on to cater for the family was burnt down in one of the numerous renewed clashes in 2022.
“I am not educated, and I can’t afford to let my child miss out of school, that was why I took her and ran to Bolgatanga so that I can hustle and take care of her since her father died a few years ago through a stray bullet in one of the clashes,”. Comfort, mother of Mary shed tears while narrating her ordeal to the GNA.
The plights of Fuseini and Mary are not isolated cases but the reality of thousands of children of school going age bearing brunt of the Bawku chieftaincy conflict.
BAWKU CONFLICT
The Bawku chieftaincy dispute is a communal conflict over the Bawku Chieftaincy institution and the issue has spanned several decades.
There was relative peace for some time, but the protracted conflict re-emerged in November 2021 leading to at least,200 people dying in the renewed Bawku conflict from November 2021 to August 2023.
Checks by the GNA revealed that daily, gunshots are heard, many lives were lost, and many maimed with many cases went unreported.
The phenomenon has adversely affected every sector of the local economy in the area, neighboring districts, and the region.
For instance, the Ghana Health Service revealed earlier this year that 27 pregnant women lost their lives in the Bawku Municipality between 2021 and 2022 due to their inability to access the health facilities because of the conflict.
Educational sector has been affected and specifically basic education in the area where schools were closed several times and when they were even in operation, many parents were still skeptical about sending their children to school for fear of the conflict.
Checks also revealed many students had also rejected posting to the three second cycle institutions in the Municipality that included Bawku Senior High, and Bawku Technical School.
Teachers and transfers
Checks by the GNA showed that between 2021 and 2023, 246 teachers sought transfer to leave the Municipality due to the conflict and the situation was affecting education in the area.
In an interview with Mr Azeriya Ayeriga, Bawku Municipal Director, Ghana Education Service, the Bawku chieftaincy conflict has not only disrupted management and supervision of schools but has also denied children’s access to their preferred schools.
Mr Ayeriga said “sometimes it is difficult to deny teachers transfer requests because of the current situation, some can be posted to the area and within one year he or she is looking for transfer and you will go to a school and only one or two teachers will be there.
“Our plea is that the factions involved, stakeholders and all those who can bring peace should come together and resolve the conflict for everybody to work because it is not good for the future of our children,” he stressed.
Madam Ivy Betur Naaso, the Upper East Regional Chairperson of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), indicated that more than 100 teachers who were their members had left the Municipality due to the recurrent conflict which threatened their lives.
“Our main aim is to seek welfare of our members and if I have to give education which is the right of everyone and I have to stay until I lose my life, then it is not worth it,” she lamented.
SDG four
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), globally, over 27 million children (about the population of Texas) of primary and lower secondary school age are out of school in conflict zones.
The UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency and UNICEF recently revealed that more than 13,200 schools in eight African countries had been closed because of insecurity, affecting the education of at least 2.5 million children.
In Ghana, the Ghana Statistical Service revealed that more than 1.2 million children are out of school, conflicts especially chieftaincy in many parts of Northern Ghana particularly Bawku had significant impact on the education of these children.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) particularly goal four puts emphasis on access to equal and quality education for all by 2030.
The achievement of SDG four will have a significant impact in building the needed human resources to propel attainment of the rest of 16 goals of the SDGs.
However, it is barely seven years left to the deadline, children in conflict prone areas particularly those in Bawku are being left behind due to the conflict.
CALL FOR PEACE AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Mr Stephen Yakubu, Upper East Regional Minister and Chairperson of the Regional Security Council, noted that apart from the conflict compelling many teachers and health workers to leave the area and scaring investors away from the region, the conflict had made the place vulnerable to threats of terrorism.
He said REGSEC was ready to support any intervention to help resolve conflicts in the region particularly the protracted Bawku chieftaincy conflict to propel sustainable development.
Mr Ali Anankpieng, Executive Secretary of the Upper East Regional Peace Council, noted that if nothing drastic was done to resolve the Bawku conflict several sectors including healthcare, education, agriculture, and economic ventures would collapse.
He said the entrenched positions of the factions involved in the conflict had been the bane to resolving the conflict and called for synergies to help soften the stance of the parties.
“What has always worked is when the parties engage so that they understand each other better and take the right steps to close the gaps between them, so we encourage all parties involved and those affected to dialogue to find lasting solution,” he said.
Dr Joseph Bangu, Director of Good Governance, Justice, and Peace, of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO), one of the faith-based organisations focused on peace building identified lack of succession plans as one of the major causes of chieftaincy disputes particularly in Northern Ghana.
He said the chieftaincy institution was a noble and significant part of governance system and it was imperative for all Paramountcies to develop strategic documented succession plans to help chart path of succession.
“The lack of succession plans has really created problems for us, and we believe if Paramountcies are able to have well documented succession plans it will help to resolve the numerous chieftaincy conflicts experienced in recent times,” he added.
CONCLUSION
Resolving the Bawku conflict would require collective and strong commitment from multiple stakeholders including government, traditional rulers, peace building organisations and the factions involved in the conflict, among others.
While there is the need for the factions to reconsider their stance on the Bawku chieftaincy institution, there is the urgent need for the constitution of eminent chiefs to intervene as in the case of Dagbon chieftaincy dispute.
The future of school children in the Bawku Municipality and its environs will continue to be in jeopardy and hindrance to the attainment of the SDGs particularly goal four will only be a mirage if the conflict that has turned the once business town into scary environment is not resolved.
GNA