Two former regents of Dagbon have been elected to occupy the vacant skin gates of Mion and Savelugu as paramount chiefs in the Dagbon State.
This follows the offering of cola nuts as a symbol of acceptance of the nomination of the two elderly sons of Yaa Naa Muhamadu Abdulai and Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II, in line with the customs and traditions of Dagbon.
It also formed part of the recommendations of the Asantehene-led Committee of Eminent Chiefs, as contained in the road map to peace.
The nominees, the former Bolin-lana, Mahamadu Abdulai, and the former Kampakuya-Na, Abdulai Yakubu Andani, were offered the cola by their grandfather, Yaa Naa Abukari Mahama II, last Sunday.
The two royals will later avail themselves to be enskinned by the Yaa Naa in Yendi.
Skin Gates
There are three skin gates in the Dagbon Namship — Mion, Savelugu and Karaga. At the moment, all three are vacant, following the death of substantive chiefs for the Mion and Karaga skins. The former Yo-Na (Savelugu Chief), Abukari Mahama, is the current occupant of the Yani Skin.
An occupant of any of the three skin gates has the potential to become a Yaa Naa in future.
Background
The road map to peace in Dagbon was fashioned by the Committee of Eminent Chiefs, chaired by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
The rest are the Yagbonwura, Tuntumba Boresa Sulemana Jakpa I, the Paramount Chief of the Gonja Traditional Area, and the Nayiri, Na Bohugu Abdulai Mahami Sheriga, the Paramount Chief of the Mamprugu Traditional Area.
The committee, on November 16, 2018, made a declaration to bring finality to the decades-old conflict between the Abudu and the Andani Royal families in the Dagbon chieftaincy divide when they presented the road map to peace in the troubled kingdom to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the Flagstaff House in Accra.
The committee was set up by former President John Kufuor in 2002 to find a lasting solution to the dispute after the killing of Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II in Yendi in March 2002.
President Akufo-Addo, at the investiture of Yaa Naa Abukari in Yendi on January 18, 2019, had also entreated the new Overlord of Dagbon to put the two former regents at their rightful positions as part of the processes to total peace and unity in Dagbon.
