His Excellency
The President
The Republic of Ghana

Mr President,

The United Kingdom Branch of BONABOTO has learnt with grave concern, the suppression by the Police Authorities and the State Attorney in Bolgatanga, of a peaceful demonstration of the Concerned Youth Association of the Upper Regions of Ghana. The Concerned youth had planned to demonstrate against inequality and discrimination adversely affecting Northern Ghana.

BONABOTO is a voluntary association of the peoples of the Bolgatanga, Bongo and Talensi-Nabdam Districts of the Upper East Region of Ghana.

We are reliably informed that the leadership of the Concerned Youth Association of the Upper Regions was hauled to court on the 13th of November, much to their surprise, and a planned demonstration abruptly cancelled. The Concerned Youth were surprised because they had been earlier assured by the Bolgatanga Police Authorities that the demonstration could go ahead, having postponed it once before. Interestingly, the State Attorney who allegedly summoned the leadership to Court was himself unavailable in Court on the day.

We could come to no other conclusion but that the Concerned Youth were being intimidated for attempting to exercise a legitimate constitutional right, lawfully, over a legitimate constitutional norm – the pursuit of a just and non-discriminatory allocation of public resources and development opportunities.

Article 21 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana guarantees the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of thought, freedom of assembly including the freedom to take part or organise processions and demonstrations, and the freedom to form or join associations for the protection of interests. These freedoms are of course subject to public safety, defence and public order. We are assured that at no time in the activities of the Concerned Youth was there evidence of the threat to public safety, defence or public order.

Article 35 of the Directive Principles of State Policy, states, among others that: “the State shall protect and safeguard the independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ghana, and shall seek the well-being of all her citizens (Subsection 2); shall promote just and reasonable access by all citizens to public facilities and services in accordance with the law (3) and; actively promote the integration of the peoples of Ghana and prohibit discrimination and prejudice on the grounds of place of origin, circumstances of birth, ethnic origin, gender or religion, creed or other beliefs (subsection 5)”.

The Concerned Youth point to various unfulfilled public polices to allocate resources and opportunities in such a way as to address inequality and the extreme poverty in the north. Independent research (e.g. CEPA, 2005), government’s own policies including the GPRS (1&2), various household surveys and the contracts with donors (e.g. the Poverty Reduction Support Credit with the World Bank) all point to a serious problem of not only extreme poverty in the north, incomparable with anywhere else, but a growing gap between the north and the rest of the country and in all areas of the Millennium Development Goals. There is also evidence that the state has not fulfilled promises to address these gaps. There is clearly a merit in the frustrations expressed by the Concerned Youth.

We are alarmed that in spite of the professed commitment of your government to liberal democratic values, the security apparatus employed the age-old repressive response to curtail the right of law-abiding young people to express their frustrations. We call upon you, Mr President, to act on the issues raised by the Concerned Youth.
In the meantime, we urge you to ensure that the security apparatus fully respect the right of citizens to legitimate non-violent public expression of discontent.

To prevent any such incident recurring in the future, we urge you to investigate the behaviour of the Upper Regional Police Command involved in the incident and to take the appropriate remedial measures.

Long Live Ghana

Signed
Herbert Bukari
(President Bonaboto, UK Branch)

CC;
The High Commissioner of Ghana to the UK
The Hon. Minster for the Interior
The President, BONABOTO, Ghana
Mr Ayorogo Adongo Bismark. President Concerned Youth Association of the Upper Regions
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