Thumbs up for Juabenhene Nana Otuo Serebour II for overseeing the development of Asante Juaben

Asante Juabenhene Nana Otuo Serebour II, a farsighted paramount chief who stands out among his equals in the Ashanti region, has been given a thumbs up by a female Kumawu “burger”. The woman praises him highly for how best he has ensured the development of Juaben to the envy of other chiefs.

I had only to be forwarded a video to my WhatsApp platform on Wednesday, 5^thJanuary 2022, than I decided to add my bit of praise to it by narrating a little story I know about Nana Otuo Serebour II, the paramount chief of Asante Juaben, my ancestral maternal place of birth.

Nana Otuo Serebour II has been a very serious person who never allowed his royal background to spoil him to become swollen-headed and lazy, unlike other royals in Ghana, especially, those in Ashanti region. While he was a pupil and student, he undertook certain tasks to earn himself a living to supplement what his parents could give to him for his upkeep.

The story I am going to tell about him is not to demean him but to highlight to Ghanaians how he had been dynamic, dedicated to work and strived to earn a living through hard work since his infancy. Unlike some of his colleague royals and paramount chiefs who may have had, or still have, dubious means of earning their money or living, he has rather always genuinely toiled for his money.

When he was a pupil or student, he used to take to what we called then as “ntoose paa”, meaning, he carried tomatoes for money. I had three of my aunts in Juaben called Osiakwan, Adwoa Ketewa and Bronyah, who traded in tomatoes. They are all deceased as I write.

In those days, Asiampa was noted for its heavy tomatoes farming called “petra”

Whenever the tomatoes were ripe, the boys and girls in Asiampa including some from Juaben of whom Nana Otuo Serebour II as a boy or a young man was one, were hired by my mentioned aunts to carry their purchased tomatoes from Asiampa to Juaben to be sent to Kumasi for sale. They carried them in baskets.

Many other traders from Kumasi and other towns also used to come to Asiampa to purchase tomatoes.

I had myself joined them when I was a student and needed extra pocket money whenever I went to Asiampa to spend holidays and the tomatoes were in season. I had even joined other students and boys to take up contracts to weed (clear the weeds off) cocoa farms. For this one, I cannot tell if Nana Otuo Serebour II as a boy did do that.

As a hard working boy desirous of earning extra buck for his pocket money, he was once given a slap across the face that got him off his feet, sent him flying into the air and back onto the ground by one “Mortgate”, the eldest son of my aunt Adwoa Ketewa. His fault was, he had tripped and sent his basket of tomatoes scattering all over the ground.

“Mortgage” could not understand why he had tripped to get some of his mum’s tomatoes destroyed when they were thrown all over the ground, when he, Nana Otuo Serebour, fell. He was by then not called Nana Otuo Serebour II, because he was not enstooled as a chief.

Again, he personally took part, climbing electrical poles, during the installations of poles and wiring for the street electrification of Juaben. I was once told he had a go at Amma Ataa (deceased), the eldest daughter of my aunt Adwoa Ketewa, when she was at home when all people of working age in that area of Juaben had been asked to attend communal labour on that day.

The above little said about Juabenhene goes to tell volume about how he had been hardworking since his infancy. No wonder that he has continued with his hard work to transform Juaben to the admiration and envy of many people in Ashanti region.

If all the chiefs in Ashanti region or Ghana were to be very hardworking and had the interest of their towns and villages at heart as does Nana Otuo Serebour II of Asante Juaben, Ghana could have been developed to an appreciable extent than the messy or precarious state it finds herself in at the moment.

Thank you to the lady in the video who doubles as my Kumawu kinswoman and “burger”, although unknown to me both in Kumawu and abroad. How I wish I knew her or could establish contact with her to team up with her to fight for the development of Kumawu, my paternal place of birth. Kumawu is now near derelict due to a number of reasons for which I have published volumes of articles and I shall continue to do same until desired results are achieved.

Those chiefs in Asante region who are experts in land sales only to keep the proceeds to themselves alone, without developing their towns and villages, this is a challenge to them. They had better emulate the farsightedness, selflessness, dynamism and dedication of service to their people and towns and villages, of Nana Otuo Serebour II, the proud Omanhene of Asante Juaben.

Nana Otuo Serebour II has created jobs for some of the youth of Juaben through his oil palm plantation and factory.

Those chiefs that steal lands from other divisions within Asanteman, lease them to foreigners for heavy sums of money but end up pocketing the money and doing nothing for their people must bow down their head in shame. He who claims every land in Ashanti region and every infrastructure there to be his but has nothing to show for his greediness that benefits the people, must bow down his head in shame.

Nana Otuo Serebour II is only to be equalled probably by a chief in a supposedly Akyem Gushegu or some town like that as often mentioned by one Ohene David of “Fire from above” on his social media.

Nana Otuo Serebour II, nya nkwa daa!

Happy New year to Nana Otuo Serebour II and his elders and all my family members in Juanben and Kumawu.

This publication is to amplify the high commendation of Nana Otuo Serebour II by a Kumawu female “burger”. It is written by Rockson Adofo, the proud and fearless son of Kumawu/Asiampa, on Thursday, 6^th January 2022.

Rockson Adofo

6^thJanuary, 2022