Bawku Conflict: It’s Time For Lasting Peace to Prevail- Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has called on the feuding factions in the protracted Bawku Chieftaincy dispute to make way for peace to prevail.

Delivering a speech at the national Independence Day celebration at the Jubilee House in Accra on March 6, 2025, the President underscored the need for the factions to focus and prioritise making their land safe for their progeny.

He stated, “It is time for lasting peace to prevail.”

H.E Mahama emphasized that the next generation deserved to be handed over a peaceful environment and not one battered by conflict.

“Our children deserve to inherit a peaceful land where their dreams are nurtured not where their nightmares are re-lived. They deserve to inherit the land where markets are bustling with trade and not in tension and conflicts. They deserve to inherit schools that echo with learnings and not melancholy.”

He urged the factions to give peace and friendship a chance.

“Let us not be swayed by divisions, mistrust and the weight of the past. Let us give renewal for friendship a chance. Let us give peace a chance. This is not an invitation to simply forget the past. Far from it. It is an invitation to live above it.”

Conflict
The protracted chieftaincy conflict between the Mamprusis and the Kusasis is being fueled by the factions’ imposition of their legitimacy over the Bawku town.

According to Rev Professor John Zumah, the Executive Director of the Sanneh Institute and Visiting Professor of Yale University, the issue is not so much as who is the legitimate Bawku Naba currently, but whose traditional homeland is Bawku.

The conflict has claimed the lives of many as well as millions of cedis. The Africa Report says 20 people died between December 2022 and February 2023 as a result of the conflict.

A committee was set up to investigate the issues and the Supreme Court of Ghana has sat on the case and delivered a ruling but all these attempts have proven futile in settling the dispute.

Following the Asantehene’s resolution of the 16-year-old Dagbon chieftaincy dispute, stakeholders called on the government to reach out to the King for the resolution of the Bawku dispute.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini