In our leader yesterday, we excitedly put out as did others, news about the end of the insecurity which has bedeviled Bawku and its environs for a while now.
Our position was premised upon the contents of the Asantehene’s mediation report and the subsequent response from government to accept the contents thereof.
Perhaps we erroneously thought that the seeming ease with which the Dagbon impasse was resolved had been replicated in Bawku; we were wrong.
Be it as it may, the Nayiri has rejected the contents of the report even as he says he stands for peace in the conflict zone.
It would not be literarily productive and wise to delve into the issues raised by the revered Mamprugu Overlord. Our chieftaincy institution should be shelved from the kind of conversations which we engage in when politicians are at the centre of such parleys.
We respect his position, even as we salute the efforts of those who attempted to reverse the unacceptable heated ambience in the municipality.
We wish to however call upon the youth of both sides, especially since the skirmishes usually originate from them, to be guided by the overall peace of the troubled municipality and its environs.
As we said in a previous editorial, there cannot be development under such harsh circumstances. Currently, as we have heard, not even national service personnel are being posted to Bawku. Even in the face of unemployment, only a few persons would want to be posted to Bawku to work. The future of Bawku is bleak should these negative conditions persist.
Let the relevant authorities not despair but to continue to seek solutions to the security challenges occasioned by the disagreement over who is a legitimate chief for Bawku.
Being a location in the immediate environment of a restive portion of the sub-region, the restlessness offers an opportunity for gunrunners to smuggle weapons to the municipality.
The situation in Bawku is a major threat to our national security besides the whopping amount of money governments expend to keep security personnel on the ground there.
Harsh language and indeed hate speech should be avoided at this time of a prevailing stalemate lest the appropriate state of mind needed for stakeholders to try other options is lost.
The level of frustration being endured by government and other stakeholders can only be conjectured, especially after investing so much time and funds to restore Bawku to its former glory.
The national security apparatus and other stakeholders should monitor both social and traditional media to ensure that mischief makers do not exploit the stalemate to stirring the hornet’s nest.
For now, we can only keep our fingers crossed, not knowing what would happen next.