An Appeal To Dagbon Chiefs – Tell Us The Price, We Will Pay For Our Dignity
I want the chiefs to know that they have themselves to blame if young men of today do not respect them and the skins they occupy. Most of them have thrown the dignity of their skins away for whatever it is that I do not know. The very chiefs raised us in homes that abhorred thieves and crime of all kind – whether computer stealing or window breaking; stealing is stealing. We grew up with this mindset only to be disappointed by some of the very people who taught us that virtue. Today what do we see? Some of the chiefs are busily distributing the titles to sakawa boys, money doublers and well-known scammers.
With all due respect, how can you tell us that stealing, scamming and all sort of crimes are abhorred by the gods of the land, yet make thieves and criminal your elders? What message are you sending to the youth of today? If a thief, a scammer and an armed robber is qualified in the palace to be en-skinned an elder, what would be the reason why our children should not practice them?
Instead of them spending their days deciding how to make lives better for the ruled, they (the chiefs) are presiding over cases of their sub – chiefs stealing, making unguided comments and you name them. A youth chief said he slept with almost all Tamale ladies. I mean Deima Naa; yet N yeb Dakpema did not see the need to let this guy go. I wonder how the elders and the chiefs saw the comments: he meant he slept with the princesses, the Napagiba and you name them..that was what he said.
This same “chief” went on to steal a car from a Chinese and instead of handing him to the police, the chiefs and elders sat on it as well. In his defense to that nonsense, he told Tamale people how his friends believe he is better than everyone else in Tamale. I mean his friends believe he is better than we the commoners and all our great chiefs: N yeb Dakpema; N yeb Gulkpenaa, N Yeb Lamashe Naa, N yeb Banvim lana, N yeb Sagnari Naa…..berim maa yagiya
Please our fathers, we are not pained by news captions as “Tamale Chief stole a car,” we are disgraced by such commentary and it hurts our dignity. Throughout Dagbong history, only Dimab Naa got a title by scamming the Yaa Naa; but his was not the extent we are seeing now. You go to an occasion today and cannot differentiate between the real chiefs and the thieves. They wear better regalia than some of our chiefs and carry themselves almost in a similar way that our noble chiefs should be doing. Do I pay homage to them the same way as I will do in the palace of Gukpegu? No – I shall never pay homage to a globally known thief. The most annoying aspect of it is that, some of them invite our noble chiefs to occasions glorifying their abhorred actions – and trust me, such invitations are honored by our fathers and grandfathers. Why?
From the top (Yani) to the bottom, you can point out these types of “chiefs.” What at all did these criminals give to our chiefs to merit such titles? Are there no elders in Dagbong to form councils of elders? Are there no asanza niriba to help rule the kingdom? That our chiefs decided to hand titles to thieves, scammers and robbers? It is so alarming that you see scammers receiving titles directly from the overlord of Dagbong. They come back to rub shoulders with noble chiefs like N yeb Sagnari Naa.
Sadly, Dagbong youth divided this issue to politics and those who belong to a given political party see nothing wrong with the shameful way these so – called youth chiefs are disgracing our traditions. Complain about the actions of the notorious foul – mouth Dema Naa, and there would be people to eat you up. In fact, in instances he boldly insulted everyone in the Kingdom, people still saw his actions as appropriate. I think our kingdom needs some positive revolution to buy back our dignity. It must begin somewhere, and I think it should be now!
My appeal to Dagbong chiefs; our father and grandfathers, including the royal regent, Kampakoya Naa Abdulai Andani is this; please and please, let us know how much you owe these criminals; let us know how much they paid for the titles; let us know the services they performed for the titles; we will refund it and take the dignity of Dagbong back.
About the Author:
His name Abubakari Sadiq Iddrisu (Zuu Bukali on Facebook) born and raised in Gbambaya, a suburb of Tamale. His paternal grandfather was first a chief of Namvil (Namvili lana Tia); he moved from there to Kunyevilla (Kunyevili Naa Tia) and finally to Gbambaya (Paring Naa Tia) where he died. Our great grandfather was Lamashe Naa Silamani and Chogu Naa Napari. He is currently an Internal Auditor and lives in NY – USA.
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