Beneath politicization: the unacknowledged constitutional crisis in the Dagbon succession conflict in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The Dagbon succession conflict has been intermittent since the colonial era. What appears to be the most trumpeted thesis in the scholarly works that the conflict has attracted is the over-politicization of the conflict. While the over-politicization of the conflict is indisputable, this study uncovers the constitutional crisis, which is beneath and motivates the over-politicization of the conflict. Through a critical content analysis of archival and historical documents (commission reports, letters, petitions, minutes, and court rulings, among others), and through secondary data from books, journal articles, and newspapers (both print and electronic), the paper identifies and explores three principal sources of the constitutional crisis, namely, the inadequacy of the 1930 Dagomba Succession Constitution, the lack of legitimacy for the 1948 Amended Dagomba Succession Constitution, and the state's interventions that have deepened the constitutional crisis. Having explained how legal centralism and legal pluralism have been implicated in the conflict, the paper concludes with a dispassionate call for a transformation of the conflict that will acknowledge the constitutional character of the conflict and the need to convene a constitutional conference in which the two royal gates would harmonize their emic perspectives on their succession customs and rules.

KEYWORDS:

• Dagbon
• succession politics
• constitutional crisis
• chieftaincy institutions
• Yendi skin

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Cape Coast, for the critical comments of some of its members during an Interaction on 11 November 2010, comments that have helped in shaping this paper. I am also grateful to Mr Zakaria Sulemana (of Ibis West Africa) and Mr Abdul-Ganiyu for assisting me in collecting archival data for the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Dagbon refers to the traditional political system of the Dagomba people in the Northern Region of Ghana. The king of the kingdom is the Ya-Naa, who sits on the skin in Yendi, the eastern part of the kingdom. Yendi is about 60 miles from Tamale, the administrative capital of Northern Region. It needs to be stated that the Dagomba also exercise their traditional suzerainty over some minority groups in the kingdom such as the Konkomba, Basare, and Ckosi, among others.

2. Not only is Dagbon kingless, many of its paramount and sub-divisional skins are also vacant because of the absence of the Ya-Naa as the enskining authority for these vacant skins. Not less than nine paramountcies and 21 sub-divisional chiefdoms are ruled by regents now. Worse still, Kpati-Naa and Tugri-Naa who are part of the traditional Selection Committee, which selects the Ya-Naa, are vacant. For more information, see Yakubu (forthcoming).

3. The gate, as it is used in northern Ghana, refers to a royal family that is eligible to contest for a vacant skin. In Dagbon, there are two gates to the Yendi skin, namely, the Abudu gate and the Andani gate.

4. Unlike their southern counterparts who sit on stools, the northern chiefs sit on skins and their position (throne) is referred to as “skin”. For instance, reference can be made to the Yendi skin, the Karaga skin, and the Mion skin, when refereeing to the authority of the chiefs in those places, while the processes of coronation is referred to as eskining or eskinment.

5. It is to be noted that the authors on Dagbon history give different dates for Na Yakubu's reign. However, the majority of them agree that Abudulai succeeded his father in 1845.

6. Since then the members of the Mahami royal gate have always lent their support to the Abudu royal in the dynastic politics in Dagbon.

7. The talking drum, as a cultural musical instrument, is carved from a trunk of a tree, made into a bucket-like shape with openings at both ends and covered with animal skin that is pinned to the bucket. Its pitches are skillfully manipulated to produce tonal sounds that imitate human speech. In the case of the Dagomba people, among other things it is used to narrate the history of their ancestors and their victories for those who understand the talking drum.

8. In the four-day conference were the Ya-Naa with nine members of his Judicial Council, 13 divisional chiefs and more than a hundred subordinate chiefs.

9. Chieftaincy titles in Dagbon go with any of the following: Naa (Chief) or Lana (Owner) or Dana (Possessor). For instance, while Karaga chieftaincy title goes with Naa (Karaga-Naa), the Mion chieftaincy title goes with Lana (Mion-Lana) and the Gagbun chieftaincy title is associated with Dana (Gagbun-Dana). The choice of what title should go with a chiefdom was decided by phonetics – the combination that sounded better.

10. In fact, it is as a result of this emerging development that both gates (the Abudu and the Andani) intend to enskin their regents as the next Ya-Naa, a factor that was responsible for the side-lining of the late Mion-Lana, A. A. Ziblim (granduncle to Bolin Lana), and Tampion-Lana Alhassan Andani (granduncle to Kampakuya Naa).

11. A group of some army and police officers – that later called itself the National Liberation Council (NLC) – under the leadership of Colonel E. K. Kotoka overthrew the government of Nkrumah. The group put forward economic, social, and political grievances as the justifications for its action.

12. On 13 January 1972, the democratic rule under Second Republic was abruptly halted through a coup that was organized by the National Redemption Council (NRC) under the leadership of Colonel I. K. Acheampong. The main criticism against Dr Busia's regime was the worsening economic situation in the country.

13. Justice I. N. K Wuaku, a retired Supreme Court Judge, chaired the commission whereas Professor Kwesi Yankah, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ghana, and Mrs Florence Brew, an educationist, were members.

14. It is important to state that these are not Chiefs but Kings. The use of Chiefs to describe Kings is a legacy of colonial historiography that tended to demote African traditional system in order to align it to the British empire. While the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II was the chairman, the Yagbonwura, the late Doshie Bawa, and the Nayiri, Mahama Abdulai, Naa Bohugu were members.

15. The National House of Chiefs is a body of the country's traditional councils which is given legislative powers – by the 1992 Constitution (Ghana 1992) – on matters of the customary laws. It has appellate authority over Regional House of Chiefs and other Traditional Councils.

16. Stare decisis is a legal doctrine that enforces courts to follow the principles that were applied in previous judicial decision. I thank Samuel A. M. Fenbeti, Esq. for sharing this with me when he was consulted on the legal implications of the 1986 Supreme Court's ruling.