Buipe youth demonstrate against Buipewura for enskining Fulani man as chief

There was a demonstration against the Paramount Chief of the Buipe traditional area, Buipewura Abdulai Jinapor (II) by the youth of Buipe on Sunday 18th December 2022.

Many policemen were deployed to the Buipe community to ensure the demonstration was conducted in accordance with the Public Order Act.

The demonstration by the youth was basically against the decision of the paramount Chief of Buipe traditional area, Buipewura Abdulai Jinapor (II) for allocating several hectors of land to Fulanis in the area and as well as enskin one of them with the title; “Fulani Mande Chief”.

The youth who demonstrated on the principal street of Buipe were on their way to present their petition to Buipewura, however security personnel prevented them from entering the Palace.

As a result, the Savannah Regional Minister directed the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Central to take the petition and hand it over to Buipewura.

The youth in their petition gave the Buipewura 7 days to address their grievances other wise they will take another action.

The youth of Buipe in their petition titled; “petition to the Buipewura, Jira Abdulai Jinapor II on the happenings in Buipe Traditional Area stated;

“Your Royal Highness, Buipewura Jinapor II, please, accept warm felicitations from the youth of Buipe. We, the youth of Buipe are not happy with your style of leadership.

One recent issue that the youth disprove of is your recent unilateral allocation of land to Fulanis and enskinment of a Fulani Chief without regard to the collective interest of the people of Buipe in particular, and the Gonja Kingdom in general.

The decision you took is only for your personal benefit to the detriment of our collective survival. Several issues have come up from the enskinment of the Fulani chief you designated as Mande Fulani Chief.

In order to address the following complaints that resulted from the enskinment of a Fulani as the Mande Fulani chief without consulting the sub-chiefs, the youth of Buipe, as well as the gifting of land to the Fulani community without the consent of the Yagbonwura, the King and Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom, we, Youth For Peace and Development in Buipe present this petition to you and we demand action from the following;

1. Why did you name the Fulani Community land as Mande when you know that Mande is at the heart of the Gonja Kingdom?

Do you not know that Mande is our ancestral home and, as such, cannot be named after a Fulani chief? We urgently request that you reverse your decision to name a piece of land after our ancestral home and remove the alleged Fulani chief from his position as Mande Fulani chief. This must be done within seven days.

We really cannot fantom a reason why a new chief should be installed for the Fulbe in Buipe because they have leadership in place throughout Gonjaland.

2. You heard the Fulanis distort our history on the day of their sacrilegious enskinment. They, the Fulani claim their forefathers came alongside the founder of the Gonja Kingdom, Ndewura Jakpa. Since they are your friends and guests, We, the youth of Buipe wish to enquire from you the name of this Fulani man, what his name meant in the Fulani language, and also where he was buried.

Since Buipe is not the only Ghanaian town where the Fulani may conduct their yearly gatherings, we demand that their yearly gathering for the coming year should not be held in Buipe.

3. We would no longer sit down and watch this freedom to pamper the Fulanis to celebrate by riding motorbikes in the Buipe township anyhow with impunity without considering the safety of our people. It must be emphatically noted that the residents of Buipe have never benefited from these Fulani conferences except for your personal gain. Rather, the conferences have brought mishaps and untold hardships to the people of Buipe. A young guy called Musa Abdul Aziz was killed during one of these conferences. His case was one of several others in which most victims were hurt as a consequence of Fulani men ramming them with motorbikes.

We also painfully remember a brother who lost his life as result of reckless riding of motorbikes during their Tabithalaku in Buipe.

Quite apart from this, three (3) persons sustained several degrees of fractures and robbery cases and other social vices around Buipe and its environs.

The youth is not ready to accommodate any Fulani gathering in the community again. Since their gathering cause the community a lot. Enough is enough.

4. To ask further, if truly Ndewura Jakpa, through his struggle to acquire this land was accompanied by a Fulani why couldn’t he give them a portion of the Land as at the time when he was alive to compensate them for their effort in his struggle?

5. Our Secretary claims that the land allocated and gifted for the settlement of the Fulanis was 10 acres, we disagree with that assertion because that land is over seventy (70) acres of land.

6. It must be put on record that we are not asking for the eviction of any group of people including Fulanis from Buipe or Gonjaland. Far from that. All we ask of is that our land and chieftaincy should not be mortgaged to any stranger group.

7. As a traditional Chief, charged with the traditional duty to preserve and sustain our culture and traditions, you went ahead to strangely declare that Gonja men do not taboo marriage with Fulani women. This has brought about ridiculous comments from all Gonja traditional areas which casts a bad slur on your person and we the citizens of Buipe Traditional Area.

8. Your conduct called for condemnations from Gonja people, and rightly so, the Gonjaland Youth Association through their PRO, came out to comment respectfully about it, with advice for you to rescind your decision.

But you Buipewura Jinapor II, delegated your traditional secretary, Neripwura Kipo, to rather use insulting words on our hard-working PRO, Borejinkpr Mufti, by branding him a none native of Gonja Land and Buipe. Neripwura spewed such words on Borejinkpr Mufti without appreciating the pain Borejinkpr Mufti biological grandfather, Rtd Regimented Sergeant Major Mahama Damba of blessed memory went through during Buipewura Jinapor’s chieftaincy title contests. The major had to relocate from the house he built at Warantu to become a refugee at Yipala. The said Rtd Police Major was then a sub-chief in Buipe, but a refugee in the same town with limited outings, all because of Buipewura Jinapor and family’s interest.

At that time, where was Neripwura Kipo, who now claimed to love Buipewura Jinapor to the extent of branding Borejinkpr Mufti a stranger in Buipe? We wish to state that, Borejinkpr Mufti is a native of Kafaba, an important traditional Area in Gonja Land and Buipe is his maternal home.

9. Buipe township has no gutters and no-good market. The road to the market is very poor, just like how the unmaintained market looked like a refuse dump and congested notwithstanding the huge revenue and royalties, of which you, Buipewura Jinapor is the sole and major beneficiary.

10. You have solely received and managed all traditional resources including flood compensations from Akosombo. This compensation package was instituted by President Nkrumah in 1960 to compensate those affected by floods along the Volta River catchment areas, including Buipe. It has been rumored that these monies came in millions of Ghana Cedis, but only known to you and utilized by you and your family alone.

11. You claimed this compensation was solely decided by you to be used to build a wall around Buipe football field and its stadium. But we have good information that Savannah Cement Company built the wall around the football field in Buipe. So, if such an allegation is true, where is the social responsibility of the Savannah Cement Company to the people of Buipe? Don’t we the youth have a role to play in this?

12. Rumors are also rife that recently there is a huge inflow of monies meant for Buipe, but you sat on it alone. If you were transparent, we won’t base on rumors. On this, we refer you to the chieftaincy Act of Ghana and also the Land Act of Ghana of the transparent and judicious utilization of traditional or Land resources by chiefs is critical.

13. We, therefore, demand that as our chief, you prefer to see the indigens work for bad remuneration and welfare in the companies in Buipe, so we will remain poor and see you and your family as the Primus inter pares forever. That’s why you frighten the workers of Savacem not to demonstrate to demand their welfare, else you would banish those aggrieved workers”.

Meanwhile, the Buipe Traditional Council has said it has become aware of a demonstration by some sections of the youth group in Buipe and therefore responded to some of the claims of the youth.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Buipewura Prince Gbanso responded to some of the claims of the Youth of Buipe.

On the Claim of enskinment of a Fulani kinsman as a traditional chief in Buipe, the Buipewura’s said “we wish to state in the strongest possible terms that this allegation is completely false, baseless, and unfounded. The Buipe-Wura’s palace wishes to reiterate that nobody of Fulani extraction has been enskinned as the traditional chief of Mande a suburb in Buipe. On the contrary, Mr. Abdulai Alhassan (who is the biological brother of the ring leader of the demonstrators) and a royal from the Chinchanko gate in Buipe, was nominated as the Mandewura of Buipe on Friday 16th December at the Jinapor palace”.

On the claim that the Buipewura is not the Yagbonwura, the Buipewuras Palace said “it is trite knowledge that indeed the Buipe-Wura is not and has not held himself as the Yagbonwura”.

The Buipewura’s palace said for the record, the Buipewura is the Vice-President of the Gonja traditional council and can only exercise his duties in that regard. : Buipewura has an excellent working relationship with the Yagbonwura, who is the overlord of all Gonjas and will never attempt to usurp the authority of the Yagbonwura and so it is the utmost desire of Buipe-Wura Jinapor II to lift high the image of Gonjaland, and the quest to pursue this noble objective as the Vice-President of the Gonja traditional council cannot be said to be an attempt by the Buipe-Wura to hold himself as the Yagbonwura”.

On the claim that the Buipewura should be held liable for the lack of gutters in Buipe township the Buipe-Wura’s palace said “it is not an arm of the executive and can not be held liable for the construction of Gutters and roads in Buipe. The Palace said the local assembly is responsible for the collection of levies and taxes in Buipe hence, the group may wish to direct their petition to the appropriate quarters”.

On the claims that the Buipe stadium was not constructed by the Jinapor palace, the Buipewura’s palace said; “for the record, the Buipe Development committee established by the Buipe-Wura Jinapor II saw to the construction of the Jinapor Stadium, in addition, the committee constructed a fully furnished dormitory for students of the Buipe Technical School, provision of Poly-tanks and beds to the Buipe senior high amongst others”.

On the demands against Fulanis living or holding their national conference in Buipe the Buipewura’s palace said they wish to place on record that “it is the desire of the Buipe-Wura to ensure that indigenes of the Buipe traditional area coexist in peace and harmony with other tribes just as Gonjas continue to live in peace on the soils of other tribes. Therefore, any demand to evict or deny Fulanis access to basic amenities will be unconstitutional and against the ECOWAS principles”.

Finally, the Buipe traditional council said, “they wish to assure the general public that the doors of the Jinapor palace are always opened for engagement with his subjects and the general public at large and therefore wish to encourage those in doubt to seek clarification from the palace before making hasty conclusions, which has the tendency of creating tension and misunderstanding’s on traditional matters”.