Let’s all support Dagbon peace process — Asoma Banda
Elder statesman and business mogul, Alhaji Asoma Banda, has called on northerners to support the peace processes initiated by President John Dramani Mahama to bring about lasting peace in Dagbon.
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He said the silent diplomatic processes of President Mahama were working to perfection and it, therefore, behoved all northerners and peace-loving Ghanaians to support those initiatives.
In an interview, Alhaji Banda, who is a former Council of State member, said what the country needed most at this time of its development was peace to sustain the gains made and also attract more investment.
He, therefore, said provocations that would reignite conflict should not be encouraged.
In response to calls by former President Jerry John Rawlings for northerners to put pressure on President Mahama to reopen investigations into the murder of the late Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Andani II, Alhaji Banda said what the north needed most was development and not conflict or war.
Common enemy
According to him, northerners have a common enemy of poverty and underdevelopment to defeat and not fighting among themselves.
He, therefore, called on statesmen and members of the National Peace Council to stand up to such provocative comments to avoid the youth being misled into fighting again.
Alhaji Banda explained that moving ahead with the peace process did not mean that nothing heinous did not happen but a decision by the people to move ahead in peace.
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Peace gains
He said since the incident in 2002, both Andanis and Abudus had sat in the same plane and bus and had breakfast together within the first year of President Mahama’s reign.
He said Andanis and Abudus had taken a step further to celebrate the Damba together at the Gbewaa palace this year.
“What the people of Dagbon need at this time is unity and the sustenance of the peace process and not provocations that will derail the gains made so far,” he said.
Alhaji Banda said as founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), it was important that former President Rawlings acted in a manner that would make the NDC succeed.
Advice to Rawlings
Alhaji Banda advised former President Rawlings to always counsel President Mahama in privacy and not in public.
He urged former President Rawlings to emulate former President J. A. Kufuor, who is highly respected by members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for his non-partisan posture on national and party issues.
Recall
At the celebration of the 26th anniversary of the Samanpiid Festival at Bawku in the Upper East Region last Saturday, former President Rawlings called on the people in the Northern Region to pressurise the government to reopen investigations into the murder of the late Overlord of the Dagbon Traditional Area, Ya Na Yakubu Andani, to ensure that justice was done.
He said northerners seemed to have cooled down since President Mahama took office, with the excuse that it was their northern brother who was on the seat so they must create a peaceful atmosphere for him to run the country.