An aide to the vice president, Lawyer Akbar Yussif Khomeini has indicated that the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Saani Alhassan erred in his translation of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s words at the funeral of the late Mion-Lana Mahamadu Abdulai on Sunday, August 21 in Sambu.

Through a Facebook post in response to a news item by ghdominancenews.com on the issue, Lawyer Akbar narrated what the veep told him in 2018 before the performance of the funerals of the two overlords of Dagbon; Yaa-Naa Yakubu Andani and Yaa-Naa Mahamudu Abdulai.

According to him, it was rather the Mion-Lana’s grandfather who provided the sheep for Bawumia’s naming ceremony, because he was the Yaa-Naa at the time Dr. Bawumia’s father, Mumuni Bawumia was the regional minister in Northern Region.

Read the response below:

So in December 2018 while I was doing lunch with the Vice President in the office and discussing the funerals of the Ya Nas and what he had to do in respect of the two funerals, he disclosed to me that the funerals were his for two reasons.

First, as someone who was born and raised in Tamale, and educated in Tamale he considered himself a part of Dagbon and secondly, as someone whom his late dad told him was named Ya Naa Abla ŋmarigɔn, he had the customary duty to actively perform the funerals of the sons of Naa Ablai.

Naa Ablai ŋmarigɔn was Ya Naa when Lawyer Mumuni Bawumia became Regional Minister. It was in this period that Mahamadu Bawumia was born in Tamale.

As it is the custom, the Ya Naa plays host to every Regional Minister in Dagbon and he is usually informed of such pleasant occurrences. It was thus, upon being informed of the birth, that the Ya Naa provided the customary animal for the naming ceremony. It was he who suggested that he be named Mahamadu after he Naa Ablai’s late father (Yaa Naa Mahamadu bila ) and his first son (who also became Ya Naa Mahamadu).

This historical fact was restated by the current Regional Minister during the funeral of the Mioŋ Lana. The only error was in stating that he was named by and after Naa Mahamadu instead named by Naa Ablai after his (Naa Ablai’s father Naa Mahama, both from the direct lineage of Mioŋ Ablai)

It could also be that the Regional Minister, himself a Royal, spoke in the context of Mioŋ Lana’s customary relationship with every Ya Naa. In that sense, he wouldn’t be in error.

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Story By: Fuseini Safianu Mandeya