A former CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr. Mustapha Hamid, last Tuesday urged stakeholders of the Zongo communities to work towards making Hausa an examinable language.
Both dominant parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should depoliticise such a project to ensure its success, he stated.
He stressed this during a lecture delivered at the Kanda National Mosque as part of the annual Hausa Day activities.
He acknowledged the fact that Hausa is the most widely spoken language besides Akan in the country, and wondered why some think it is not a Ghanaian language.
“Let Hausa become an examinable language at the senior high school (SHS) level. Both the NPP and the NDC should join hands to make this happen,” he said.
Lectures such as this, he said, should be backed by actions such as making Hausa an examinable subject. His call resonated with the audience, the applause saying it all.
A former Chairman of the Hajj Board, Lawyer Ben Abdallah Banda, took the audience through citizenship law spanning 1948 to date. He explained to his listeners about the fact that citizenship is not about one’s hometown. It is important, he said, for the understanding of family histories under such circumstances.
Those whose parents were for instance born within the Gold Coast before or after 1948 are citizens of this country. One becomes a citizen of Ghana when one of their parents is a citizen of this country, he said, adding that citizenship is by law and not about hometown.
Deputy CEO of the National Identification Authority, Alhaji Mohammed Nasiru, complained about how some citizens support unqualified persons to claim citizenship by acquiring the Ghana Card. “We are still battling this matter,” he said.
Zongo indigenes who are Ghanaians, he said, should test the law when their citizenship is denied them, explaining about place of birth and not hometown or tribe.
Sheikh Yahyalamin, who was the guest speaker, underscored the importance of Hausa, recalling his early days at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) where the language is still one of the languages spoken.
The first Ghanaian currency after independence, he recalled, had Hausa inscriptions on them using Arabic letters or Aljami such as pambiyar, to wit five pounds.
Hausa was then the only language writable using Arabic letters, he added.
COP Mohammed Fuseini Suraji, the Director-General of the National Patrol Department of the Ghana Police Service, told Zongo youth to avoid drugs because of its negative effects.
All should join hands, he said, to wage war against drug abuse which has become a trend in the Zongo communities. Those who sell drugs should remember their children as they destroy the lives of others through their illegal trade, he said.
The Hausa Day activities are organised by Hausa Youth Ghana to highlight the culture of the Hausa, the dominant ethnic group in the Zongo communities across the country.