There is a remote cause to Old Tafo clashes - Dr. Aning

Security Analyst Dr. Kwesi Aning has stated there is something more dangerous underpinning the Old Tafo clashes.

He indicated that there are underpinning factors that have been timed to coincide with the clashes in Old Tafo in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Dr. Aning said the politics bit of the issue is just to divert attention.

According to him, he was disappointed when people with little knowledge about the dynamics of the happenings in the community stopped the process.

He recalled that the security forces were trying to deal with the situation when the process was abruptly truncated by some religious leaders, describing the interference as ‘unnecessary’.

”I remember the earlier clash I expressed my disappointment with that truncation of the process and that unnecessary interference…we don’t seem to think or understand the complex dynamics that are happening,’ he asserted.

There were renewed clashes at Old Tafo on Tuesday when the Zongo youth in Tafo assaulted residents in the area.

The Zongo youth clashed with traditional authorities some months ago over the demarcation of a cemetery for the construction of a fence wall.

He charged residents to ask authorities for the real causes of these clashes in the community.

‘I think we got to ask them these questions boldly, because what is happening is much more insidious than what we see, and that the politics bit of it is just to divert attention. We should ask if this is a much bigger problem,’ he said.

Speaking on Ultimate breakfast show hosted by Lantam Papanko, Dr. Aning said the ongoing clashes at Old Tafo goes beyond domestic politics.

"Are these religious tensions, ethnic tensions, violence and arms that we are seeing in this country only isolated incident that are taking place in 2016 or probably there is a more insidious underpinning or insidious underpinning that has been timed properly to coincide with the election so that we will be diverted in terms of analysing and understanding the dynamics, if you listen to the rhetoric that is coming up, about people demanding for guns, retaliate, people who have lived long together start to hate each other, that raises fundamental issue, what really is taking place, and why are we unable or unprepared, to deal with it.

"Does this tie into an emerging trend of militancy that feeds into the wider sub-region that we are experiencing. This goes beyond our domestic politics; this may be much bigger," he observed.

He wondered why people tend to accept shoddy evaluation and analysis of the dynamics.