RE: JAKPA PALACE: THE ROLLING DRAIN ON THE PROGRESS OF GONJA?
Author: Mohammed Issah
0244227266
It is almost 48 hours after our Kamara brother, Mr. Quddus attacked the highly respected King and overlord, Yagbonwura Bii-Kunuto Jewu Soale I, his Chiefs, and the Gonjaland in general. I would normally ignore these empty political effusions but for the naked insults at our revered Palace and Chiefs, uncontrolled hatred for our chiefdom, and the falsehood cum half-truth peddled. These attacks at the palace and our revered Chiefs are not the first from this young man and his NDC. There is ample proof of similar unprovoked attacks at the late overlord, Yagbonwura Tutumba Boresa I and Buipewura Jinapor II. They have done so to countless indigenous Gonjalanders but have gone away with the same for political reasons.
We indeed have challenges as a Kingdom just like any other Kingdom in the world, it calls for unity, calm and sober reflection, and not this impunity of brazing arrogance of abusive insults and rants, all in the name of petty partisan politics. It is not strange that the NDC is at it again, running down a whole Kingdom with all the negative adjectives. They [NDC] in the S/R think and feel so arrogantly, that everything and anything Gonjaland must be about them, yet they have nothing or too little to show for their deeds in the Region.
I am responding for the records as a deserved royal of Gonjaland. We cannot be insulted in this manner by persons who claim they belong here. That cannot be right. And for all Gonjalanders, who for political aggrandizement have read and applauded the wholesale insults and disrespect at the respected Chiefs of Kegbanye, posterity will judge you all. We shall remind ourselves very shortly.
The great Gonja Kingdom is not weak as suggested by our brother and his NDC. It is as strong as he came to settle on it. In this same “weak” Kingdom, Mr. Mahama has risen to become an MP, Deputy Minister, Minister, Deputy President, and President. In this same “weak” Kingdom, Mr. Mahama has made too much money for himself and his family but still can not offer to build a befitting palace for the “weak” kingdom that made him. Mr. Mahama has ridden on this “weak” kingdom to the world. How else would you insult the King and his people for all these glories they brought to your paymasters?
Having bragged about how other regions and tribes show love for Mr. Mahama, the same logic is pained by the fact that the Jakpa Palace welcomed a son of the North with a chieftaincy title, how ironic can that be? This can only be attributed to a lame-duck NDC that taboos pork but enjoys pepper soup prepared with pork.
And what is this lame business about the long age conflict between the good people of Wasipe and Lukula/Mempeasem? How else can any desperate politician be petty? That the know-all Youth Imam doesn’t know that this conflict predates the entry of H.E Dr. Bawumia into politics? That the people of Wasipe and Lukula/Mempeasem have clashed several times under the Presidency of Mr. Mahama? If H.E Dr. Bawumia was a magician in the eyes of the Youth Imam and his NDC, by his tribe as a party to the conflict, Mr. Mahama would have solved that conflict as a grand-father magician when he was a deputy President and subsequently President. It is only weak politicians who dwell on conflicts and wars for political survival. Let me remind the NDC, that Kpandai is not in the Savannah Region today because of a conflict under their tenure. Let them inherit that deficit so we listen to them on how to end an age-long conflict between Wasipe and Lukula on the stainless Vice President.
Mr. Mahama has been the luckiest Northerner in our century. He’s benefited most politically from the people of the North and for that matter Gonjaland. Gonjaland has taken him through virtually all the ranks a politician would aspire to in Ghana, even to the Presidency. How long must Mr. Mahama be in government before fixing the developmental needs of his kinsmen? He feels Gonjaland is a piece of rag he can use, dump, and still come back anytime as he wishes; the very reason the NDC is insulting, denigrating, and blaming everyone except themselves for the challenges of the land. For them, we are only meant to vote in elections and nothing else.
Mr. Mahama should tell us what he has given to the North and his own Gonjaland in return. He should tell us what significant thing he has done for Bole. It is on record, that Mr. Mahama is the only President who has not started and completed a legacy project in his home (Bole) and the Region. He is a man who abandoned his people at the time they needed him most.
The current state of the Jakpa Palace is not new to anyone. We have heard and read a lot of appeals from the Palace and its managers. These appeals have been re-echoed on countless occasions. Mr. Mahama, his handlers, and the NDC have read and heard them but paid death ears to same. Mr. Mahama and NDC are expecting the Palace to keep running after him to help put up the Palace.
Should any greedy Gonjalander suggest, that H.E Dr. Bawumia should not listen to the plea of the Jakpa Palace because Mr. Mahama has reneged on his responsibility? Did Mr. Mahama ask for permission before going to donate to the construction of the new Gbewaa Palace? Has anyone stopped Mr. Mahama and the NDC from doing what Dr. Bawumia did? Bole is a mining community. Mr. Ibrahim Mahama has a mining business across Africa; what stops him from investing in Bole to support his people with livelihoods? Buipe and many other areas of East Gonja were flooded recently like Mepe in the Volta Region. Mr. Mahama’s blood brother, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama has made giant donations to Mepe and left Gonjaland out. And this is not the first of such disregard for us.
Must Gonjaland beg these men who do not see anything good in us? Should our overlord and King of the land and his Chiefs go begging Mr. Mahama and his family after making them who they are today? Empathy and human feelings are not begged from people, you don’t expect the King and the Jakpa Palace to go on their knees to beg their “son” for help in such a manner.
Is my Youth Imam and his NDC suggesting there’s something wrong with enstooling or enskining Political figures? The same gesture their thin god has enjoyed for years? Even in his backyard, it took NDC apparatchiks in Bole to Nicodamously smuggle a Chieftaincy title for him when in fact, he could earn it diligently by his good deeds. It is only Mr. Mahama who was enskinned away from the Palace of a supposed absentee Chief who gave him the said title. In the case of Dr. Bawumia, he was enskinned by the great overlord at his residence. There was no need to fake anything for the peerless Flagbearer of the NPP.
It is not right to blame Dr. Bawumia for our problems, such is from weak minds; the Vice President has a personal relationship with the Yagbonwura, that predates his current Status as the overload and King of Gonja. What is wrong with Dr. Bawumia offering support in renovating the Jakpa Palace for someone he knows at a personal level?
Let me reiterate, that H.E. the Vice President, and the Flagbearer of the ruling NPP deserves more than a Chieftaincy title at the Jakpa Palace and from the people of Gonjaland. In just 2 years, Dr. Bawumia and his NPP fulfilled a 40-year dream of the good people of Gonjaland by gifting us a Region. This is what Mr. Mahama refused to do for his people for 8 good years whiles at the Presidency, even after several promises to 2 successive overlords of the Gonja Kingdom. Even when Mr. Mahama was exiting government in 2016, He was still promising us a Region.
The Flagbearer of the NPP and government have completed 3 new Hospitals in the Savannah Region. This is a record that Mr. Mahama cannot match for his 8 wasted years. Dr. Bawumia more than deserves the title conferred on him.
Dr. Bawumia and his NPP have completed a new Regional Coordinating Council complex in Damango. Mr. Mahama has no such record in the whole of Savannah Region. Dr. Bawumia deserves more than the title from us.
Dr. Bawumia and his government is building a virgin road that would link the Eastern part to the Western part of the Region. This is what our brother never dreamt of in his entire 8 years at the Presidency. Dr. Bawumia deserves the title conferred on him.
Today, I can drive my car from Daboya to Mankarigu and proceed into the North East Region even in the wet season, because Dr. Bawumia and his government has worked on the otherwise fallow road to link these towns and villages. He deserves more from Gonjaland.
Let no NDC person believe the Region belongs to them. And that they can vilify, malign, insult, and denigrate every responsible elder including the Jakpa Palace for political partisan gains and go scot-free. That would not happen. We still have responsible indigenes of the land who shall stand up to the disrespect and arrogance of the party towards the Kingdom. We are ever ready for them.
God Bless the Yagbonwura Bii-Kunuto Jewu Soale I and his blessed Kingdom
And God Bless our Homeland Ghana.
