What about the other side?

I was born at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and I lived most of my life in this blessed city. Growing up in this city is the best thing that could ever happen to me. Many of you already know how much I love my birth-city. And the noise I never stop making of its awesomeness. It is the place I met most of the beautiful people in my life.

Communality and hospitality is our strong suit. We believe in treating people well and living as one big family. I went home for the vacation a few years ago. I left my stuff in the taxi that took me home. The next day, the taxi driver returned them to my house. I can’t think of the number of times my parents lost their phones in town and got them back from the good Samaritans who found them. How many of these do we hear people talk about?

I hate violence and I condemn it in any form. I am disturbed by the recent happenings in Tamale and I think we should leave the security forces to do their jobs instead of sensationalizing an already sensitive issue. Stop the hyperbolic reporting and let them do their job!

To the young people who have fancy phones and unlimited internet access, if your intent is to help, contact the relevant authorities instead of taking to social media to reinforce the stereotypes appropriated to northerners. The internet is a very powerful tool; let’s use it to educate the rest of the world. Let’s disabuse their minds of the stereotypes that they have attributed to us.

I get that many of these Accra-based media houses are “doing their job”, I only have a problem with the selective reporting that they do. Did you know that Tamale has been voted three consecutive times as the cleanest city in Ghana? Did you know that Tamale has one of the most organized road networks in Ghana? Did you know the Greenwich Meridian passes through Yendi? Did you know that Tamale is one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa? I wonder why few or no documentaries have been done on this yet. Or is it not worth reporting? But of course, you have all the resources to do documentaries on “Why Northerners Fight”!

In recent times, entertainment centres, media houses and financial companies have sprang up here, why has there been little reportage on any of these? When the Zogbeli L/A Primary School (in Tamale) won the national championship of the U-13 Milo African Championship why did you not make a lot of noise about it? Why do you refuse to show that side of Tamale?

Until we stand together as a people and work towards development, we will continue to give ghouls something to chew on; we will continue to satisfy these stereotypes. We need to stand together as on to work towards improving access to education in the three northern regions.

-WFM