CONFLICT FINANCING AND PROTRACTED CHIEFTAINCY CONFLICTS IN GHANA:

Abstract

Chieftaincy conflicts are part and parcel of the social life of most Ghanaians. These conflicts however, become undesirable when they become protracted and destructive. In trying to understand the numerous protracted chieftaincy conflicts that have engulfed the country, various authorities have attributed the causes of such conflicts to improper democratic structures, competition and government interference, among others. Apparently, scholarly works on how conflict financing - the act of spending various resources on conflicts which invariably sustain them are very much limited in the Ghanaian situation. Against this background, the Yendi chieftaincy conflict was purposely selected with the view to examine the various resources invested by interested parties which invariably protracted the conflict. Fifty-one (51) respondents and 8 key informants were selected through purposive and quota sampling techniques in a case study design. Primary data gathered through interviews and focus group discussion revealed that resources invested in the Yendi chieftaincy conflict included; the purchase and supply of arms and ammunitions, cash donation to combatants and funding of legal battles in the court, free supply of fuel to combatants, provision of strategic ideas, and purchase and supply of machetes to the belligerents. To be able to sustain the resolved chieftaincy conflict and address the problem of conflict financing, it is recommended that there should be broad conflict analysis and sectorial collaboration between the police, the military, security analysts, the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and the Yendi Municipal Assembly to ensure effective disarmament exercise in Dagbon. The various forms of resources invested in the conflict requires experts from various fields including bankers, the police, military, conflict resolution experts and fuel dealers to help deal with the menace of conflict financing which the study found to have contributed to the fuelling of the Yendi chieftaincy conflict.