Re-branding the Northern Ghana for socio-economic development
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

Accra, March 29, Ghanadot - There is the need to use concerted efforts to fix and polish the blighted image of the Northern Ghana, which comprises the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Region, in order to encourage sustainable development there.

There is also no gainsaying the fact that drastic and development-oriented measures need to be taken not only to enhance the human resources and physical infrastructure of the Northern Ghana, but also to restore the lost splendour of the presently scarred north.

Although Northern Ghana accounts for almost 90 percent of Ghana's food exports, the area remains one of the country's least developed. The north houses the three out of the 10 regions of Ghana and often referred to as the “the food basket of the nation” But the area has seen more strife than any other part of the country and is now widely used to illustrate the paradox of "poverty amidst plenty".

Despite being the goose that lays the golden eggs for the nation, the north is widely regarded as a region wounded by youth militancy, fragmented by internal strife, bruised by incessant conflicts fuel by either ethnicity, political, social and economic.
But is this what the Northern Ghana is all about? Is the north’s story only that of conflict, turmoil, bloodshed and underdevelopment?

Over the years, the governments have made attempts to tackle the Northern Ghana debacle. Most recent attempts include the setting up of the Northern Development Fund and Savannah Development Authority by the immediate former President, Mr. John Agyekum Kufour and the current President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills administrations to unlock the development of the poverty stricken Northern Ghana.

A bottom-up approach is strategic for the re-branding process since it combs the grassroots, sieves out the quandaries besetting the area’s image and progress, and then furnishes the government with first-hand knowledge, which through a participatory governance approach, would be used to address the existential realities of the region.

In an interview with Ghanadot, Mr. Rahaman Abdul Salam, the Executive Director of the African Peace Building Club, who is a Northerner, hinged the problem of the Northern Ghana on protracted marginalization and political insincerity.

"The problem we are seeing today has been years of marginalization in terms of infrastructural development and in terms of insincerity at all levels of government. The implementation of the policies of government has not been pursued with sincerity.

What we have seen so far is satisfying some political leaders who claim to have control of the region and this has led to the degradation of the area."

We, as a nation, can no longer afford to cast a glittering veil of rhetoric over the sordid incident in the north, if we indeed want to forestall a humanitarian catastrophe and the eventual break up of the country, warned, Mr. Abdul Salam.

"Re-branding the Northern Ghana is a brilliant idea and it is the best thing that can happen to Ghana and Ghanaians as a whole. This is because any time the Northern Ghana is mentioned, what immediately comes to mind is violence."

Charting a way forward for the region, he added: "It's high time we stopped paying lip-service to the North cause. It is a serious issue. Go up there and you'll see that the people are suffering. Re-branding the region would involve providing basic amenities such as hospitals, schools, roads, electricity, and pipe borne water, to the people. There should also be massive and meaningful employment for my people. We are really suffering."

The people of the Northern Ghana, just like the rest of Ghanaians, are never bereft of grand ideas; what they may lack are opportunities and a conducive environment to bring the ideas to fruition; they are neither lazy nor born crazy. They are only short of avenues to put their energies into use and live like sane people, remarked, Mr. John Dakurah, a political activist.

Rather than resorting to destructive blackmail of the youth of the regions, he urged that they must be constructively and productively engaged.

For a brand consultant, the image problem is one of the country's largest setbacks, and the Northern Ghana, which is a microcosm of Ghana, is not insulated from the problem.

Efforts need to be made for the Northern Ghana not to be defined by the negative activities of the few bad eggs, but by the positive attributes and activities of the area and its many good people.

If the government blend the principle of participatory government with transparency, accountability and the sincere articulation and implementation of development-oriented programmes for the northern parts of the country, the socio-political stability and economic prosperity that have long eluded the region would be a thing of the past.