Installing gay as chief against Akan customs and traditions — Nana Kwame Edu VI

Nana Kwame Edu VI, Tufohen of Oguaa Traditional Area has posited that any Akan Chief must be someone with a good character worth emulating by the youth.

He said they must be people without blemish and as such a person with gay orientation cannot be installed as a Development Chief.

In the chieftaincy act, Nana Kwame Edu VI indicated that someone who is gay cannot be installed as a Development Chief in any Akan society.

"Is the person who is being alleged as gay a practicing gay or a lawyer defending gays, or just a gay activist? Does he speaks for gays as a matter of human rights point of view, or is he trying to use advocacy to transform gays? All these are to be investigated. But the bottom line is that a Development Chief must be gazetted and before such processes could be exhausted, a criminal report on the prospective candidate ought to be obtained from the Police.

"If anything untoward is found about the person's character, he/she cannot be gazetted", Oguaa Tufohen stated. "When that happens, it's like a chief who has no sandals to wear. Because no CID in Ghana will give a clean sheet to a gay activist who wants to be gazetted a chief. Gayism and its activities are taboos in our traditions and customs."

A development chief, according to Nana Kwame Edu VI, is an honorary title normally given to people who have contributed immensely towards the development of the community. The person is made to lead the development agenda of the area and can also use his or her image or connections to scout and attract sponsors to bring development to his people.

"Even if you've built an airport for us and you're gay, you cannot be installed as a Development Chief. What use are buildings, edifices, scholarships, etc, when your youth, the future leaders are destroyed in the long run?" he quizzes.

The Oguaa Tufohen made these assertions in a telephone interview with Benjamin Tetteh Nartey, host of GBC Radio Central Morning Show, on Monday 30th January, 2023, when his views were sought on Davis Mac Iyalla (an alleged known gay activist) who has installed as the Development Chief of Yamuransa Nkusukum Traditional Area over the weekend.

For a chief to be properly installed, he or she must take the Oath of Allegiance before the Chiefs and his people. Unfortunately, these could not happen as the candidate fell from his palanquin when being paraded through the principal streets of the town which in this case never happened.

Tufohen of Oguaa Traditional Area intimated that if that failed to happen then, his installation isn't complete and therefore, cannot be pronounced a chief of the area.

In Nana Edu VI explanations regarding the gay man falling from the palanquin, "That could be an accident, but, as I know it to be, the ancestors have spoken and passed a verdict on the supposed Development Chief."

In concluding his remarks, the Oguaa Tufohen charged the journalist to go to Iyalla to investigate the veracity of the claims against the newly installed chief being a gay or gay activist and also find out from the Nkusukum Traditional Authorities why they installed him as a Development Chief.

"That's is the only way we can come to a conclusion on the matter going forward. These are my views based on what I've also read in the news", he emphasised.