The North will remain backwards and underdeveloped if Northerners don’t unite – Paramount Chief of Bongo

Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum, has blamed the lack of development in the Northern part of the country on the lack of unity among Northerners, MyNewsGh.com reports.

According to him, until the lack of unity is ended, the Northern part of the country will continue to lag in terms of development.

The revered Chief cited instances where developmental projects are fought over and then withdrawn by the government that intends to introduce it.

He made this known when he spoke to Bolgatanga-based A1 Radio in an interview Friday.

He said “To be very honest with you, we in the Upper East Region have a problem; and our problem is that we’re not united. Somebody once said ‘if you want to know the character of the northerners, give them something to share and they will quarrel over it and you’ll take your thing back.’ We don’t co-operate and we’re not united.

Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum continued: “for instance, if government says it is going to build an airport in Bongo, why should anybody think that the airport must not be built in Bongo but it must be built in Bolga? Wherever we find any development projects sited, we must take it as being for all of us; but we have so much differences. We have always quarreled over certain issues that eventually, we lost them- and I think it’s better we begin to see ourselves as one people than to allow ourselves to be divided. It will not help us”.

Apart from the disunity, he indicated that several governments have also failed the people of the North.

“Permit me to say that successive governments have failed us; and I’ll not even leave this current government out. They bite more than they can chew.”