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Bridging the gap between the South and the North of Ghana in Development the Nkrumah Vision |
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 SPEECH PRESENTED BY dr. Edward n. Gyader DURING THE
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS OF DR. KWAME NKRUMAH
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, before I proceed to tackle the issues under discussion in this paper; I will do no good to the younger generation in this hall, if I do not briefly trace the history of the present day Ghana and Northern Ghana for that matter. I will not go into Pre-colonial history. However, there is archaeological evidence that humans lived in what is present day Ghana from about 1500BC. (MSN Encarta).
Oral tradition has it that many of Ghana’s current ethnic groups such as the multi ethnic Akan, the Ga and the ewe arrived around the 13th century AD. However, the Mole-Dagbane groups are believed to be the first settlers, having been fully established by 1210ad, before the arrival of other ethnic groups.
THE COLONIAL PERIOD
Ladies and Gentlemen it is worth noting that the first contact between Europe and modern Ghana dates from 1470, when a party of Portuguese landed in the Coastal regions. Following that successful Portuguese expedition, and in the next three centuries, the English, Portuguese, Swedish, Danes, Dutch, and Germans controlled various parts of the coastal areas.
The Europeans engaged in all sorts of trade with the local ethnic states mostly in the area of slaves and gold. In 1821, the British Government took control of the British trading forts on the Gold Coast. The British concern about Asante’s activities on the Coast had compelled the Fante states to sign the Bond of 1844. In theory the bond allowed the British quite limited judicial power such as the trying of murder and robbery cases only. As a result of this exercise of ever-expending judicial power on the coast and also to ensure that the coastal people remained firmly under control of the British following their defeat of Asante in 1874, proclaimed the former coastal protectorate a crown colony. The Gold Coast colony was subsequently established on July 24th, 1874 and this comprised of the coastal areas and extended inland as far as the ill-defined borders of Asante.
In the meantime, the British became interested in the broad areas north of Asante, known generally as the Northern Territories. This interest was prompted primarily by the need to forestall the French and the Germans, who had been making rapid advances in the surrounding areas. British officials had first penetrated the area in the 1880s, and after 1896 protection was extended to northern areas whose trade with the coast had been controlled by Asante. In 1898 and 1899, European colonial powers amicably demarcated the boundaries between the northern Territories and the surrounding French and German colonies. The Northern Territories were proclaimed a British protectorate in 1902.
Mr. Chairman, with the north under British control, the three territories of the Gold Coast, that is the colony (coastal regions) Asante, and the Northern Territories became, for all protocol purposes, a single political unit, or crown colony, known as “the dependency” or simply the as the Gold Coast. The borders of present day Ghana was realized in may 1956 when the people of Volta Region, known as British mandated Togoland, voted in a plebiscite to become part of modern Ghana.
Ever under colonial rule, the chiefs and people often resisted the policies of the British.
However, moves towards de-colonization intensified after the World War II. In 1947the newly formed united Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) called for “self government within the shortest possible time.” After rioting increased in 1948, the members of the UGCC were arrested, including future Prime Minister and President; Kwame Nkrumah, later Nkrumah formed his own party, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) with the motto “self government now”. He started a positive action campaign and gained the support of rural and working class people. Kwame Nkrumah was arrested and imprisoned for being the leader of a party that caused boycotts, strives and other forms of civil disobedience. In the elections that followed, the Convention Peoples Party led by Kwame Nkrumah, won the majority of seats in the new legislative assembly and was subsequently released from prison and appointed leader of Government Business (1951). Following these developments Kwame Nkrumah engaged in series of further negotiations with Britain, finally on March 6th 1957 at 12:00am he declared the Gold Coast “free forever.”
Ladies and gentlemen, the Gold Coast achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, becoming the first sub-Saharan African nation to do so and the name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient empire of Ghana, which once extended throughout much of West Africa.
Every government since the independence of Ghana on the 6th March 1957 has faced the problem of bridging the gap between the south and the north with regards to development in general.
The representation of the Northern Territories in the legislative assembly in 1951 which completed the union of the Protectorate with Ashanti and the Gold Coast Colony, and the coming to power of the Convention Peoples Party under Kwame Nkrumah marked a crucial phase in the political, economic and social integration of the Gold Coast. It enabled the people to bring direct political pressure to bear on the Government for accelerated development, especially in the field of Education.
The Nkrumah administration inherited lops sided educational system in quality and quantity. Educational facilities were limited and inequitably distributed. The disparity between educational advancement in the North and the South affected the political stability of the Gold Coast and tended to retard the march towards independence. A caution on the centrifugal forces likely to be generated by the unbalance in economic and educational development was sounded by the members of the Coussey Committee which was appointed by the British Government to make proposals for constitutional advancement of the Gold coast following the 1948 political disturbances in the south. The committee noted that “ Not possession cocoa or timber nor as far as is known at present, a variety of minerals, the Northern Territories showed little signs of the vigorous economic activity characteristic of the more fortunate Southern regions. Materially the people are poorer than those of the rest of the country and the general standard of education is lower than in the South. Yet they are industrious and of great potential ability, and within the limits of their poor resources have shown a remarkable sense of civic responsibility unsurpassed anywhere in the country. The Northern Territories and the South will gain much of mutual benefit by closer association. Every effort must be made to foster this association, and more then that a forward and determined policy of economic, social and educational development should be undertaken by the Central Government in order to raise the standard of these people up to the average of the rest of the country. “Anything less than that will give rise to suspicion and dissatisfaction.”
After coming to power, the Nkrumah government realized that two important prerequisite for peaceful progress to independence were ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL STABILITY. It was therefore proposed that there was the urgent need for a modern and progressive educational policy aimed at wiping out illiteracy within the shortest possible time and geared to meeting the many needs and aspiration of the emerging nation. The Government adopted a vigorous policy to promote economic integration and national consciousness and political unity between North and South.
The problems of educational advancement in the Northern Territories by 1951 were succinctly summed up thus “The acceleration of plans for educational development in the N.T severely limited by the very meager supply not only of trained teachers but of potential trainees.” There were only two training colleges in the Northern Territories. The Tamale Teachers Training College and a small teacher Training College run by the White Fathers in Navrongo.
As the government was anxious to win the support of the representative of the protectorate, who were then not yet affiliated to any political party and to prevent the region retarding the progress to independence, the government declared in 1951 that “ in the broadest term the Government economic policy for the N.T which has already been initiated but enquires urgent expansion, is to raise the cultural and physical standards of the people, to increase the productivity of the land and to improve the condition of the livestock”.
The Prime minister (Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah) assured the region of its fair share of development and a mass literacy campaign was initiated in the protectorate.
Expanding education in the Protectorate involved a continues process of development at all levels of the educational system. However as indigenous teachers were not readily available it was not possible to improve much on the original scheme.
Nonetheless, the Government was clearly committed to providing more schools, colleges and technical institutes as and when local teachers and pupils were forthcoming. The Government also noted that “Service in the Northern Territories is not popular with teachers of Southern extraction. Very few are willing to accept posting to the Northern Territories, and of those who are so posted a considerable number resign. This issue is still the order of the day especially with Senior Health professionals on posting to the Northern Regions.
The solution to these problems was to explore the means of welding together the desperate parts of the country. Nonetheless, the Government rejected proposals for inducement allowances to compensate for uncongenial living conditions. There was a serious expansion of primary and middle schools among 1964 to 1966 to keep pace with this expansion, a training college was established at Pusiga in Northern Togoland in 1954 and another was proposed for the North-West of the Protectorate. Scholarships were also provided for higher studies at the University College of the Gold Coast and elsewhere.
The estimated capital expenditure on government institutions in the Northern Territories for the decade 1951-1960 was £210,000.
In the meantime, the standing committee of the Northern Territories Council passed and transmitted to Government a resolution on development policy in the protectorate. The committee expressed distress at any statements which implied that the North must wait until the South is fully developed. It was also stressed that the “the Northern Territories constant clamour for rapid development of its physical resources and social services is as of right, in view of the fact the Northern Territories plays, and is going to play, an important part in the social and economic life of the Gold Coast. And that unless the Government takes heed of this Clamor for speedy development in the Northern Territories it will endanger the political and economic relations of the Northern Territories with the rest of the Gold Coast.” A situation we cannot run away from today.
The standing Committee subsequently reviewed the priorities for specific projects of development and reiterated the view that education was the first priority in the development needs of the protectorate and demanded that the accelerated Development Plan for Education should be expedited and expanded. The plan had made provisions for the opening of ten primary schools a year, the establishment of men’s and women’s training college and the opening of middle schools as and when required. The committee recommended the creation of 35 primary and nine middle schools a year for the next five years. The Government Secondary School at Tamale was to be refocused and rehabilitated as a model school, the “Nfantsipim” for the Northern Territories. It was also proposed that a second secondary school should be established in 1957 in the north-west of the protectorate. The Government was asked to consider the building of a third school by 1960.
In order to cope with the provision of primary and middle schools recommended, it was proposed that a third teacher training college should be built in the north-west by 1957 and a forth in the north-east by 1958.
The Tamale training college was to be upgraded into a certificate A institution and it was envisage that a second women’s training college, besides the one already provided for, would be opened to meet the demand for female teachers from the expected expansion of primary and middle schools. The Committee was satisfied with the progress of the Tamale Trade School in meeting the requirement of technical education in the North. It, however, felt that the school should be turned into a technical college by the middle of the plan period and an additional trade school should be opened by 1958.
The belief that missionary participation in establishing educational institution in the north, would contribute immensely towards the acceleration of education, brought about the call on government to relax its educational policy and allow the missions to open schools in the north.
In 1955, Sir, F. C. Bourne, Constitutional Adviser to the Gold Coast Government, remarked that “It is, I think, agreed on all sides that historical circumstances have put the northern territories somewhat behind the other regions in most of the important fields of development. Much leeway has been forced up, more particularly in the matter of roads and communications, by the present government in the past two in the past few years, but much remains to be done. Education in particular needs special attention so that there may be plenty of candidates qualified for service in the Region.”
He suggested that within a year of the new constitution coming into force the Government should outline a ten year development plan for the Northern Territories and allocate special annual grants to the Region during the period. The Achimota Conference which considered these proposals confirmed that it was necessary to accord special consideration to development in the protectorate but rejected the formulation of a ten year development plan. Instead it recommended that “Government should undertake a yearly review of the progress achieved in development in the northern territories and that whilst special deficiencies last, they should receive special consideration in each yearly allocation under the development plan.
The pressure was kept up and in view of the fact there was only one northern graduate, government agreed to consider the possibilities of granting scholarships for study in polytechnics as a stepping stone to university admission.
The progress achieved in all spheres of development brought the protectorate closer to the rest of the country than ever before and in 1955 Mr. E. A. Mahama, a CPP member could justifiably declare that “We have been brought out of the darkness into the early morning light and we see the blues of the noon day sun of independence ahead.”
On the eve of Independence Day, the prime minister, Dr. kwame Nkrumah rightly declared that the most difficult problem facing the government was national integration. To achieve this it was necessary to finance development which was not revenue producing but government was determined to find the money for such schemes. It tendered that application from northerners who were qualified for degrees and professional courses would be carefully considered to speed up admissions to University.
The then Minister of education Mr. C. T. Nylander initiated a very practical special scholarships scheme on 11th July 1957. Under this new plan applicants could be of any age and after a qualifying examination, the top twenty candidates will be interviewed and ten selected and admitted into form 4 in the Tamale Secondary School and the capable ones could continue to the university and return to work in northern Ghana.
The cumulative result of northern pressure on government in and outside parliament and the desire to integrate the country was the expansion of educational facilities at all levels. As northerners began trickling into the universities, the government finds it necessary to assist such students with a generous grant in addition to the normal scholarships. This was however abolished in 1972.
The need for the establishment of a university in the North dates as far back as 1953. On the 13th November 1953 Dr. Ansah Koi noted in the gold coast legislative assembly that having only one secondary school in the northern territories was really disturbing. He requested government to provide more secondary and probably a university college in the protectorate and cautioned that (Gold Coast, 1953 498).
“We must remember that the Northern Territories form an important boundary with our adjacent foreign states and it is therefore necessary for that area to advance educationally to defend this boundary for our country. Therefore in our advancement towards self government we must remember that self government must go together with ability to defend oneself in any direction, in any sphere of life. Therefore we must see that the northern territories, which form the large proportion of our area is placed on a high level so that it would not be necessary for them to run all the time to the south for direction and instructions. They should be able by themselves to do most of the things they require”. Following this first request these are the land marks leading to the establishment of UDS, which we must of necessity; remember as part of our historical path leading to where we are today. In 1954 B.K. Adama re-echoed the need for a university in the northern territories. This was followed by another call by Mumuni Bawumie in 1962.
In 1990 another suggestion to establish a university in the north to help transform peasant agriculture was brought up by the (URC) University Rationalization Committee. There were varied reactions to these suggestions from the public as well as from individuals (intellectuals from the existing higher educational institutions, from the press ecc; but these reactions were all on the negative side. Because they felt it was not necessary to open a university in the north. Whether agricultural bias or otherwise.
It was only in 1992 the P.N.D.C.’s government response to the issue was decisive and this sis what the government issued. “University facilities will be expanded with a view to further increasing access to tertiary education to introduce new action oriented degree programme in area of development priority including agriculture and industry. For this and in the interest of spatial equity, a university in the north will be established.”
And the University for Development Studies UDS was established on May, 15th 1992 about 40 years after the first demand for the establishment of a university in the north was made (PNDC Law 297, section, 2). And this is what the founding vice- chancellor had to say “I wish to acknowledge the courage of the Chairman and members of the Provisional National Defense Council in establishing the University for Development Studies” (Prof. Raymond Bagulo Bening)
We must acknowledge this event as a mile stone in our development path. Because of late it is thought that development is more than increasing incomes and enlarging GDP’s development, is also about improving health enhancing the environment, developing good governance and increasing human welfare, especially for the poor. Higher education strengthens core values relating to responsible citizenship and care for oneself and family. Higher education also contributes to better health and governance, sustaining the environment and reducing poverty, inequality and crime. Development strategies often focus on these objectives and higher education has a critical role to play in achieving these goals.
Therefore even though it is our right to have higher educational facilities we must acknowledge not only the basic educational facilities that have been provided but also this last effort of the PND Government led by FLT. LT. J. J. Rawlings. The bridging process is a must and must be pursued to its logical conclusion.
Thank you.
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