Source:tolonradio.com
RE: “THE ELEVATION OF NANIIK DAANO (SUB-DIVISIONAL CHIEF) TO PARAMOUNTCY AND THE DISAGREEMENT FROM THE TANMOUNG CLAN IN BINBAGU”
- I have just sighted the above article published per Regional News of Wednesday 2nd October, 2024 and supposedly authored by a Professor Langbong Bimi as a contributor.
- It is unfortunate that the said Professor whose mother hails from Naniik and he was born and nursed in his maternal home by us in Naniik should embark on such a confrontation with the Naniik Clan. He is biting the fingers that fed him.
His mother Konduuk Lambon is a cousin of mine. He is the Posthumous son of Kombian Bimi Dapa Nananbong of Tamoung clan in Bimbagu who died on 16th November, 1963 in Gambaga. His mother was still carrying his pregnancy and had no sanctuary among the Tanmoung relatives of her deceased husband. She therefore returned with the pregnancy to her father being the professor’s maternal grandfather Boklik Lambon at Naniik Gberuk (Najikong) where she was received with open arms until “The Professor” was born in February 1964 into our Naniik home.
We can show him where his placenta is buried in that house. I am sure as a Professor of Biology this might be of interest to him.
Professor Langbong Bimi should note that his maternal great grandfather Boklik was one of the first settlers in that Naniik Gberuk which they the Tamoung clansmen have unilaterally decided to rename it “Najikong” in order to change its identity. Boklik had two (2) sons namely Boklik Lambon (the professor’s maternal grandfather and one Boklik Konlan. Boklik Lambon was the first Kanbong Naba of the place when in 1953 the first Naniik Naba Napot Konlan was enskinned by the Nayiri Na Sherigu Abdulai I.
Let me remind the professor that he should remember that without Naniik he would not have been what he is now.
His maternal uncle, Mr. Kaati Lambon Ellias Awutu a retired accountant solely educated him and gave him the comfort in Naniik up to the sixth form level and when he could not qualify directly to the university he had to live with us here in New Fadama, Accra and we contributed in diverse ways to make him rewrite both his GCE O’ and A’ levels to qualify to enter the University and attain this height for his mother’s sake we do not regret this magnanimity shown to him though he has turned his back on Naniik today.
Professor, I will not stoop so low as you did to drag myself in the mud as you have done to yourself even though in your write up you have sought to vilify and denigrate me.
- The current youth of Tanmoung in Bimbagu like you are the trouble shooters devoid of conscience who have caused Bimobaland pain enough. You will agree with me that when the first Naniik Naba (Naniik Daano) was being enskinned in 1953 all your Tanmoung elders and other supposed chiefs were there but they never kicked against it because they knew the land did not belong to Tanmoung.
Your own father Kombian Bimi also variously known and called Dapa Nananbong was one of the first persons to receive the Western English Education in the area. In fact he was the first to receive Western education in the Tanmoung clan in both Ghana and Togo.
As at 1953, he was an employee with the Gold Coast Ministry of Health as a Tsetsefly Control Officer. The said Division is now known as Medical Field Unity in Ghana. He was the Main Advisor of your clan. Your clan therefore had the best counsel from him on all issues including land issues. Your literate father and his elders neither questioned the enskinment of Naniik Naba nor the ownership of the land in which he was being enskinned as Divisional Chief of Nayiri in Mamprugu.
The only authority who has the power to grant land to people who occupied virgin lands in Mamprugu Kingdom as at the time of the acquisition of the Naniik lands was and still is the Nayiri.
The grant was evidenced by the fact that he enskinned them chiefs over it. This was what happened in 1953 when he enskinned Napot Konlan (deceased) as Chief of Naniik Division of the Mamprugu Kingdom and entrusted those lands to him and his kingsmen to rule over it for him.
It is a fact that exact dates of events in predominantly illiterate Africa may be disputed but the non-existence of physical evidence of past activities like graves and ruins of settlements that were in such locations.
That was seventy-one (71) years ago but none of them raised a finger against it. Similarly, they did dispute his jurisdiction over this land of ours. Is it today that toddlers that you are will lay claim to the land and chieftaincy of Naniik. You are not wiser or more knowledgeable than your forbearers on this issue and you should try to live with the realities of this time.
- You stated the following which is misleading and unintelligible for anyone to comprehend:
“To the best of our knowledge, the Naniik Daana is a Sub-divisional chief and NOT a Divisional chief as Lawyer Dubik claims. A document of enskinment/elevation as a Divisional chief could settle the matter. If the right protocols were followed by the enskinning authorities, a Sub-divisional chief would have been elevated to a Divisional chief, and not to paramountcy. More so the Naniik Daana does not have a single sub-chief enskinned by him so he does not meet the criteria for elevation to a paramountcy status.”
It is ludiculous and sound puerile. You have been referring to Naniik Naba (Naniik Daano) as a sub-Divisional Chief but you have not pointed out to the Divisional Chief under whom the Naniik skin operates. Since no Divisional chief enskins Naniik Naba. He has always been enskinned by the Nayiri as a Division of Mamprugu Kingdom directly the Nayiri. Therefore his elevation to Paramountcy in his clan land does not violate any protocol as being touted by you.
- Professor, again your suggestion above implies that your analysis is warped and illogical and you are not on top of the subject. There is no clause in the chieftaincy law in Ghana which mandates a skin or stool to have sub chiefs under it before it could be elevated by its superior chief to a Paramountcy status. This is thus not one of the criteria or prerequisites for elevation of chiefs to paramountcies.
- On the question of the site of the Bimbagu Senior High Technical School (BISTECH), you are aware that it is in Naniik land and not in Bimbagu. The very fact that it has been named Bimbagu does not change its location. Be informed that Bimbagu Rana is the owner of Bimbagu and not you. Everybody except perhaps you acknowledges the fact that the said school is located in Naniik.
Note that when the School Committee was going to acquire the land they approached our Head of Family and he prayed and poured libation in the house before they went and started the construction of the structures on it. Note that it was the Nayiri who intervened and the land was released. Please the land is in Naniik and not in your non-existent Bagir land.
- Professor, throughout your narratives you have never attempted to tell the world as to when your ancestors came to settle in Bimbagu or Naniik and who led them to the said promised land of Bimbagu or Naniik.
Our Konkomba neighbours acknowledge that Naniik is not their land and same is in accord with the judgment of the Nayiri as delivered.
- I have never tried to rope in third parties into the issue nor court any alliance with any person or persons against Tanmoungs in Bimbagu. You are being haunted by your past and present misdeeds as you have always fueled and started the wars against your neighbours senselessly.
- In 1989 you started the war with the Konkombas when you unjustifiably beat up some Konkomba youth in Bimbagu market starting your war with them. Again, you attacked the Bauk people in Sayoo and Sambiruk in their own terrain and thereafter somewhere in the recent past you sent gunmen to ambush Bauk clansmen in their market on a market day in Najong No. 1 and killed three (3) of them and the gunmen fled the scene and the said criminals have not yet been apprehended. You had earlier attacked the Puri clansmen in Bimbagu and burnt down their houses and properties. As recent as 22nd day of September, 2024 you sent gunmen on motorbikes to ambush the Naniik Youth Chief and another person, one of whom died and the other was injured thereby provoking hostilities between the Tanmoung and Naniik. You went further to burn down Naniik paramount chief’s Palace and other houses in Naniik. We never fired back. Will you now say that you were provoked by whom?
Your youth added banditry to your character as a clan since in this last unwanton attack on Naniik, they did not only commit murder and arson but rustled the cattle, sheep, poultry and goats of Naniik.
Naniik and the public are awaiting the police to do their work by apprehending the criminals and their leadership because you armed them and instructed them to commit these heinous crimes in the name of protecting Tanmoung as a clan.
All these atrocities have been committed by you the Tanmoung Clan of Bimbagu and not all Tanmoung people residing elsewhere in Ghana or Togo. You often caused these problems and turn round to rely on the entire Tanmoung Clan worldwide to sympathise with you thereby igniting clan wars engulfing others.
These wars that you fought as Tanmoung clan often originated from you in Bimbagu thereby roping in clan sympathies from the whole Tanmoung clan. It is important, to advise your youth not to rely on violence to solve problems. Your belligerence is unacceptable. This is a sign of a failed leadership among you as a clan.
- I have never sought to distort your history and your chieftaincy in Bimbagu but Kombian Duut neither acquired the title Bagir Daana nor was he enskinned in 1952 by Naa Sherigu Abdulai who reigned as king of Mamprugu Kingdom from 1947 to 1966.
- The Tanmoung clan of Bimbagu continued to serve under Bunkpurugu until Jadan Toatir ascended the Headship of the Tanmoung in Bimbagu and he went to apply for it from the Nayiri and adopted the title of “Bagir Daana” which he claimed was for his fetish in Togo as I have explained in my earlier Rejoinder.
When this problem cropped up between Naniik and you, sometime in 2021 you sent a delegation of your Tanmoung clansmen to Yenburi to enquire from your chief who was then the custodian of your clan in both Ghana and Togo called Duut Bintoogbo (Tamoung Bat) now deceased. Your delegation gave my mobile number to him and he called me on his own line with Number 0547304988. He informed me that he had categorically told you that none of your elders who ruled you as headmen in Bimbagu ever progressed to be enskinned by the Nayiri prior to Jadan Toatir who had died and you have not yet performed his funeral. He was the first to take the title “Bagir Dana”. It is untrue that you ever had any chief before him who had been enskinned by the Nayiri.
Duut Bintoogbo (deceased) further told you that the Naniik Clan lands do not belong to you but you chose to ignore his wise counsel and continued to peddle untruth about it.
- In 1952 Nankpanduri was under Bunkprugu and it had to break away through the efforts of Sillim who went straight to Nayiri to be enskinned. Thereafter it was Naniik clan which followed suit in 1953.
- In 1953, the Naniik clan under Napot Konlan also went to the Nayiri Naa Sheriga Abdulai I to be enskinned over their land.
The Naniik Skin belongs to the Naniik clan who are also known as Gboung Naateb who are occupying the present day Naniik clan land. Gboung Naateb means “Royals” or “The custodians of the Skin”.
We never settled in Bimbagu with you as we owned our own land so vast, and stretching from Naniik Gberuk through Kunkomon to Nayin Gberuk.
Your claim that Naniik clan was the third to arrive in Bimbagu after Tanmoung clan is this false and you cannot substantiate it because it is delusional.
It is preposterous to say that the Tanmoung own any land in Naniik. Naniik is a Bimoba name which is also the Name of our ancestral home in Togo. These theories being propounded by you to illegally claim Naniik land is untenable. You are but confident tricksters who will always want to claim a land they never had by force.
There is nothing like “Bimbagu-Gberuk” or “Najikong”. It is Naniik Gberuk but you are seeking to distort the history to suit yourself. I am being transparent and giving you facts of the area. No Naniik person ever approached you for land to live on it in Naniik. We were there before your people immigrated in and we gave them shelter. They came from Togo and first settled at Kpalsok in Yunyoo jurisdiction and later we allowed them to join us. The current Tanmoung families in Naniik never settled in Bimbagu before migrating to Naniik. They have no old residences in Bimbagu.
- Your claim that your ancestors gave Kamuajul land to settle on it is false. From whom did your ancestors obtained the land and also decided to give it to him? The supposed shrine is non-existent. You are making the false statement after I raised the question of our ancestral graves on it. None of your ancestors ever settled there in that enclave in Naniik.
Graves are indelible land marks pointing to the existence of human settlements and land occupation by such persons. When I am pointing to graves of our leaders and clansmen on the land you are talking about shrines. Shrines can be made by people in their homes at any time. Furthermore there is no such shrine on the land in Naaniik belonging to any Tanmoung family.
- Again you have to defend your point saying that Naniik owns only about 200 acres of the land in the enclave. This admission is enough to say that we were there before your clansmen were allowed in by our clansmen to come and join us.
It is a fact that in the Bimoba area settlements are on clan basis as clansmen often occupy the territory contiguously. So you can attest to the fact that stretching from Naniik Gberuk through to Nayin Gberuk were and are still settled by Naniik (Gboung Naateb).
The Nayiri and the Mamprugu Kingdom own the land in all Mamprugu. Your predecessors had no land to grant to us.
As I explained in my previous rejoinder, the Tanmoung clan came later to Naniik as our guests. Currently, Tanmoung clansmen have less than twenty (20) houses in the enclave. The rest of the settlement in Naniik is occupied by Naniik and other different clans who acknowledge the sovereignty of Naniik Naba over them in the area. Tanmoung is the only clan which does not want to accept the realities.
- Your claim that the “Blood Burial” which is the Peace Accord the Tanmoung of Bimbagu struck with the Konkomba after 1989 clashes did not involve Naniik clansmen and their chief is perfectly true and correct. This is because we never fought the Konkombas over our land. The Tanmoung clan of Bimbagu fought with them for the territory in Bimbagu and not in Naniik. This tells you that Naniik has always been an independent entity which is not linked to Bimbagu. Hence it neither belongs to you nor Bimbagu Rana. We have distinct boundaries with Bimbagu Rana and other neighbours as already described: “The Naniik Daana was not a party to this ceremony, not even remotely.” You have rightly confirmed this fact and vindicated me that our lands have never been part of Tanmoung lands in Bimbagu.
- Similarly, it is true that I never mentioned Naniik in all my submissions to the PNDC in 1980’s during your conflict with the Konkomba of Bimbagu. This is borne by the fact that the Naniik land was not one of the disputed territories. The disputed land was Bimbagu land. Hence it was necessary not to rope in Naniik clan lands. “Hence nowhere in this document is Naniik mentioned anyway”. It is important to note that only combatants sign Peace Accords to end the war.
- When the matter came before the Regional Security Council and the District Security Council, parties were invited to the Nayiri’s palace for a hearing and the Nayiri presiding in state over the meeting and called for evidence from both parties and delivered judgment in favour of Naniik. The Nayiri sat as a court to deliver that judgment and went further to warn the Tanmoungs to desist from causing problems in the area. He further instructed the police and the soldiers to maintain peace in the area. He stated clearly that Naniik shares a boundary with Bimbagu Rana and no other person or non-existent Bagir Land.
- On 8th October, 2024, the Regional House of Chiefs presided over by the Nayiri with the Regional Security Council in attendance he reaffirmed the judgement in favour of Naniik and asked the security services to deal with the culprits whose acts led to the death of one (1) Naniik citizen as criminal and to apprehend and prosecute them as such.
Professor, you should desist from saying that this was not a judgment against the Tanmoung of Bimbagu.
Your supposed Fact Number 5(2) referring me to a Memo I wrote in your favour dated 13th April, 1989 was definitely based on your side of the story you gave me. So it was skewed in your favour as Tanmoung clan. Now, I have been given the clear facts about you and I now know that you fed me with lies to present such a document to the then Government. Those were the supposed facts you fed me with at that time to advance your case before the then Government.
No wonder that your own Tanmoung clansman and a sibling who was part of the then PNDC Government distanced himself from you and did nothing to support your cause.
- Lastly, but not the least, the fact that Napot Konlan was living amongst the Konkomba in Nakpali Kunkook before he was appointed Naniik Naba cannot constitute the grounds that he was a settler in his clan land when he was invited and enskinned as their chief in Naniik which does not belong to you.
Our chieftaincy is for the whole clan and any Naniik clansman residing anywhere in the world is eligible for it irrespective where he lives. It was only logical that when was enskinned he could not go back to settle among his Konkomba friends and rule his people therefrom. Be informed that nobody who applies to be enskinned but has no land and people to rule, will be enskinned by the Nayiri. Be logical in your thoughts so that your delusions do not destroy your relationship with others. Being bellicose does not promote healthy neighbourliness as it will only retard your progress and turn the world against you.
Be advised accordingly.
Long live Naniik clan!
Long live Mamprugu!
Long live Ghana!
Than you.
Yakubu Dubik Mahama, Esq.
