U/E/R: Chief who is empowering women in his traditional area says the men aren't happy

Chief of Balungu, a community in the Talensi traditional area of the Upper East Region, Naba John Attia said, he believes giving support to women in his traditional area is the best way of contributing meaningfully to households than supporting men.

He told this reporter during an exclusive interview that, "When I came, I saw it was better working with women than men, I support them a lot. Even if there is work to be given to the women and the men, I always give it to women to be able to get something for the family."

He added, “Some people from outside heard the way am doing with the women and they came to the palace to ask me some questions and the last question they asked me was whether the women respect their husbands and my reply to them was a capital ‘NO’. A lot of them don’t respect their husbands again because they now have the power.

“So, the women here don’t joke with me. If you want, let’s just go to the bush now, some of them are farming five acres of maize, three acres of maize, four acres of maize, and groundnut. Just go and see the men, some of them can’t farm. So, the women now know what to do.”

Asking whether the men are happy with the support and empowerment he is giving to the women, Naba John Attia responded, "no, the men are not happy with me, but I won’t mind them."

Sighting some examples, the chief stressed that, “here we do some contributions for funeral issues and some other problems. If a woman has a problem, they are able to contribute up to Two Thousand two hundred Ghana cedis (Ghc 2,200.00) for the one who has the problem to go and solve her problem. The men, even Twenty Ghana Cedis (Gh 20.00) can’t contribute. And we have a funeral donation we do monthly, am with the women’s group and the men’s group as well. When my father died, the men I only had One Hundred and Twenty Ghana cedis (Ghc120.00) but the women gave me Nine hundred Ghana cedis (Ghc 900.00).

”If you have Ghc100, the women are supposed to take Ghc70 whiles the men take Ghc30 because if the woman takes Ghc30, she would also cook from there and the man will also eat. So, that means the man took everything. I always fight with the men because of this. So the woman must take Ghc70.00.”

However, Naba John Attia believes women know how to multiply the little they are given than men.