11. Resolving the Dagbon chieftaincy crisis and succession to the Ya-Na skin: The role of kingmakers and the electoral college system
- Author:
- Isaac Owusu-Mensah
- Publication Date:
- 06-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- African Journal on Conflict Resolution
- Institution:
- The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
- Abstract:
- One chieftaincy conflict that has engaged the attention of all governments of Ghana since independence has been the Dagbon chieftaincy crisis. An ex-post analysis of the latest state of mediation and intervention efforts to resolve the crisis since the March 2002 eruption of bloody conflict, highlights a political stalemate that has challenged mediator intervention strategies. The Committee of Eminent Chiefs (CEC) appointed to mediate the dispute was stalled from 2009 until November 2018, when the Committee laid out a road map for peace which culminated in the installation of Ya Na Abubakar Mahama Andani. The approaches span 17 years of dealing with the crises – given several weaknesses associated with the resolution regimes. Adopting ethnographic and other qualitative methods of data collection, this article posits that, in spite of the inveterate tendency to resolve traditional political problems through modern democratic systems, the Dagbon crisis could have been resolved as a state-brokered intervention by adopting a modern electoral college system grounded in a ‘Clean Sheet Redesign process’ to pave the way for the restoration of the Andanis and Abudus family gate rotational system.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Electoral College, and Chieftancy
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana