I read with disgust a
BBC story of Cameroonian women farmers who are being raped, allegedly, by
cattle herders in their country and I couldn't help but draw a parallel between
what our kinsmen at Agogo are enduring at the hands of Fulani herdsmen. That
begs the questions 'Are rape and murder the modus operandi of Fulani herdsmen
throughout Africa?'. It may rather be a sharp question, but I can't help but
raise it.
We must not allow this
to happen on our soil. Ghanaians have gone through a lot of
hardships/maltreatments in other people’s countries and we must not allow
foreigners to come into our country and trample upon our rights. Ghanaians are
welcoming people. In most times the average Ghanaian would treat a foreigner
better than his own follow Ghanaian. But when foreigners (in this case Fulanis)
decide to rape our women and kill our men, we as a country must do everything
we can to protect our kinsmen.
It has almost been two
weeks since the government indicated it was going to relocate the herdsmen and
their cattle to a different location and yet we have not seen any concrete
results. Now what I want the government and the security apparatus in Ghana to
let all Ghanaians know is "WHAT IN GODS NAME ARE THEY DOING TO PROTECT OUR
BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN AGOGO?".
One ridiculous argument
I have heard some government and so called "security experts" make is
that because of the Ecowas treaty, they cannot drive the Fulanis out of the
country. My understanding of the Ecowas treaty is that it allows for the free
movement of goods and people. However, residential and work permits are
required from the ecowas host country if an alien intends to work and/or stay
in the host country beyond a certain number of days. My first question to the
Ghana immigration service is “Do the Fulanis have the requisite work and
residential permits?". If they don't Ghana Immigration Service should please get to
work do what they are constitutionally mandated to do.
If cattle raised in
Ghana, by Fulanis, are the only beef/meat one can find on the Ghana market, I
would become a vegetarian/pescetarian so as to register my disgust at the way
Fulani herdsmen in Ghana subject our kinsmen to their barbaric acts.
Kwame Boateng
Dansoman, Accra, Ghana
kwameboatengcd@yahoo.com
