Chiefs should be given due recognition - Local Government official
Mr. Alex Opoku-Boamah, a Director at the
Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, on
Friday observed that unlike the recognition of their rightful roles in the
pre-independence era, traditional authorities have now been relegated to the
background and are only called
in to grace occasions.
He noted that during the pre-colonial times, chiefs took the front role
in all aspects of local governance, such as ensuring law and order,
mobilization of the people, socio-economic development and legislation.
Mr. Opoku-Boamah, who made the observation at a 'validation
workshop' on a study on the “role of traditional authorities in local
governance”, at Elmina, described the current situation as “most unfair”.
The workshop which was organized by the Ministry in collaboration
with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), under its Support for
Decentralization Reform, was to present findings and recommendations
made during the study for the deliberation and inputs by chiefs, assembly
members and queen mothers to enhance local governance.
The Director, said in spite of the fact that even the colonialists realized
the importance of the local authorities and “partnered” them in ruling the
country, especially in the maintenance of law and order, chiefs “were
pushed away in post-independence activities”.
He said as a result, traditional rulers, who had hoped to have their
powers restored, are now only “remembered” during inauguration of
projects or other social functions, and expressed regret that, “people are
ready to recognize chiefs as custodians of culture, but not their rightful
place in local governance”.
Mr. Opoku-Boamah, pointed out that culture was not just about
drumming and dancing but the entirety of the people's way of life and that
chiefs must therefore be involved in various developmental processes.
According to him, this had become imperative in view of the fact that
there were many “eminent professionals” such as development analysts
and strategists, who are traditional rulers, and that, “it would be unfair to
play down their roles”.
He also expressed concern about the low representation of chiefs at
the assemblies and said they were only “casually consulted” and said the
situation was “an insult” to them.
Mr Opoku-Boamah, said the study, was therefore initiated to help
enhance traditional authority and local governance in general and expressed
the hope that the participants would make the desired inputs to make the
workshop worthwhile.
The President of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, Nana Kwamina
Ansah IV, was however of the view that the contemporary view of the
institution as a debased traditional structure that has no meaning in the lives
of the people, derived from negative attributes that the institution clothed
itself.
He noted that the ascension of stools by unqualified and rich people,
the practice of obnoxious traditional and customary norms like
widowhood and prolonged funeral rites and the way some chiefs carried
themselves in public, “make nonsense of the view that the chieftaincy
institution is awesome, sacred and carried sanctity with it”.
He noted that the 1992 constitution has charged traditional authorities
with responsibility that make them role players in government, and said
there was an urgent need for a re-engineering of the institution to meet the
aspirations of the times.
“The redefinition of the functions of the chief in order to integrate him
in the current national development process is key to the total and concrete
participatory stand of the chief in local governance”, he stressed.
In a keynote address read for him, the Minister of Chieftaincy and
Culture, Mr. Sampson Kwaku Boafo, underscored the importance of
traditional rulers, in relation to governance at the local administration level,
for effective national development.
Mr Boafo said it was in respect of this that strategies needed to be
formulated to facilitate their integration and their roles strengthened to
effectively partner government in the development of the nation.
The Minister therefore, expressed the hope that a research being
conducted in the 10 regions of the country on the codification of
customary law relating to lands and family will put an end to the various
chieftaincy disputes that arise out of land issues.
Mr Bernand Guri, of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and
Organizational Development (CIKOD) whose organization carried out the
study in collaboration with the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) of
the University of Cape Coast, gave a summary of the report of the study.
He said the study which was conducted in four districts each in the
Central and Brong Ahafo Regions, indicated that many people are of the
view that the chieftaincy institution was still relevant.
He said it was also found that there was little integration of traditional
authority structures in the decentralization system at all levels, whereas the
assemblies believe that they have created sufficient structures for
participation of traditional authorities in planning at the sub-district levels.
Mr Guri disclosed that issues like the establishment of a royal college
and funding of traditional authorities from the central government needed
further discussion and clarification by the traditional authorities and district
assemblies.
The Omanhene of Esikado, Nana Kobina Nketsiah, who presided, also
underscored the important role chiefs play in national development and
expressed concern that although the nation's coat of arms portrayed this,
the chieftaincy institution had been ignored, while the adopted form of
governance and that initiated from other countries, had rather “have moved
to the grassroots”.