Editorials: Land disputes retard our development

To say that the country faces a number of development challenges is an understatement. Indeed, it is still grappling with poverty, hunger, access to education and health services.

Instead of uniting to fight these monsters that are retarding development, the citizens are engulfed in one conflict or another, from Accra to Zuarungu. 

These conflicts, be they ethnic, chieftaincy or land, have often left in their wake loss of lives and massive destruction of property.

Some of the conflicts have even resulted in the wiping away of complete livelihoods. 

The net effect of all these is that the conflicts fuel mistrust, cause stagnation in development, increase poverty and disrupt peace.

For instance, instead of mobilising resources to develop their communities, parties in conflicts rather use the available resources to arm the youth to act as fighters.

In the case of land disputes, the conflicts have created a fertile ground for the recruitment of land guards.

The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina T. Wood, has had the occasion to warn that if care is not taken, the parties in conflict will end up promoting private armies, with the attendant negative consequences for the country.

Without doubt, there have been many attempts to woo investors into the country to explore the opportunities available, with the intention of creating more jobs for Ghanaians and thereby improve the livelihoods of the people.

But no investor will put money in an area where recouping the investment cannot even be guaranteed due to conflicts. 

For instance, Ghana has a housing deficit of 1.7 million units and there have been many investors, including local ones, who have dared to go into the housing business to help reduce the deficit.

That is why we agree with Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur that the many land litigations and chieftaincy disputes threaten the peace and development of the nation. 

According to him, disputes over succession and land ownership had inundated the courts and the regional houses of chiefs, creating conditions for the needless recruitment of land guards.

Addressing a grand durbar of chiefs of the Greater Accra Region to open Homofest and to climax this year’s Homowo Festival in Accra last Saturday, Mr Amissah-Arthur said, “It is domestic and external investors who create the opportunities and jobs that sustain livelihoods.”

Ghana is described as an oasis of peace and stability on a continent that is bedevilled with conflicts. However, land and chieftaincy disputes often set us back.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, calls on our chiefs, kingmakers and family heads to take immediate and urgent steps to peacefully resolve any misunderstanding in their domain, instead of recruiting armed men to stake claims to whatever they are fighting for.

There are due processes to resolve some of these disputes, including the courts, and we believe most of the conflicts could be resolved through such processes. 

We must cherish the virtues in the rule of law, instead of the rule by men, because when the people decide to adopt self-help to seek redress for their grievances, we descend into the jungle where might is always right.

There is confusion when we succumb to the belief that only the very fit can succeed in our society and that the state will not protect the weak and the vulnerable.

The Daily Graphic thinks the numerous chieftaincy and land disputes have the potential to disrupt the peace and stability of our society. It is for this reason that all law-abiding citizens should rise up to stop that canker.