Tribal-supremacists can be found right across Ghana - and they exist in the midst of every ethnic group in Ghana. Luckily for our homeland Ghana, they constitute only a tiny minority in every single one of Ghana's ethnic groups.
On a day to day basis, the vast majority of ordinary people in Ghana, aren't motivated by tribal prejudice, when interacting with their fellow citizens. It is important that that remains a defining characteristic of our country.
No tribe in Ghana is inferior or superior to another - in our one nation of diverse-ethnicity whose people share a common destiny.
Furthermore, there is not a single extended family clan in Ghana, which either through blood-ties or marriage, does not contain relations from different ethnic backgrounds.
And under our system, northerners, have as much a right to seek the presidency, as do southerners - and the right to rule Ghana does not depend on the amount of natural resources a presidential candidate's home region has.
Tribalism is backward - and anyone who is tribalistic has a world-view firmly rooted in the Dark Ages.
It is a dangerous contagion that can destroy the nations it spreads in - as was the case in the civil war in the Ivory Coast. No politician who uses ethnicity as a political tool, deserves to be in power anywhere, in the Africa of today. We must never allow that madness to take hold in our country.
Ghana's minerals and other natural resources, such as the timber in forest reserves, do not belong to the people of the regions where they are to be found. The laws of Ghana are quite clear about that - they belong to the state: and by extension and inference to all Ghanaians.
Every Ghanaian politician is aware of that - so it is the height of irresponsibility for any politician or group of politicians to attempt to make a case for a dominant role in our nation's affairs for the people of resource-rich regions.
I have always had a high regard for the Hon. Yaw Osafo-Marfo - who is a highly-intelligent politician and hard-working gentleman.
If it is true that the sentiments expressed in the tape-recording purported to be his voice that has just surfaced, are actually views held by him, then it is a pity that in this day and age a politician like him still focuses on ethnicity.
Bigotry is a cancer in every society in which it exists. A tolerant and peace-loving people like Ghanaians do not deserve to be ruled by tribal bigots. That would be an abomination and an aberration.
As a people, we must never forget that it was such arrogant prejudice, which spawned Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Those selfish politicians who want to divide our homeland Ghana along tribal lines in order to win power, must be careful that they themselves are not consumed by the raging inferno, which their short-sightedness and narrow-mindedness, is bound to ignite, at some point.
For the sake of our nation and all its people, politicians in Ghana must eschew tribal politics - and focus their energies instead on the task of transforming our nation into a prosperous and fair society, for the benefit of all Ghanaians.
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