Party Politics Have Buried Chieftaincy In Ghana

"Chiefs have no business doing politics because a chief is seen as the mouthpiece of the people and meddling in political issues does not help the society in anyway. Any chief who gets involved in politics always end up disadvantaged because you lose respect of the people and the nation as whole," this has been an admonition from the Chief of Nyanyaano, Nana Dr. Obeng Wiabo V, to all Ghanaian chiefs.

According to the concerned traditional ruler, Chiefs have a role to play in the development of the nation by offering wise counselling to politicians, since chiefs are seen as wise elders of the land.

"Where you love one child than the other, you invite hatred to your home; politics have buried chieftaincy since there is no respect for chiefs," he added

He said from the past, chiefs could mobilise resources from traditional fines and taxes but recent developments have placed politcians and the government above chieftaincy in terms of mobilising resources to build the country.

He was speaking to popular and controversial political journalist, Daniel Benin, aka Ohim on TV7 flagship program Monitoring Agenda,

"So these days, chiefs are no more in a position to mobilise revenues to develop their towns. It has been the sole responsibility of the district assemblies and municipalities to do that for governments. We, the chiefs can only offer advice but we don't have to do open politics during public functions and political activities." worried Nana indicated.

Nana further cited an example where even in the home, parents are not supposed to exhibit favouritism towards their children.

This, he said, often breeds uncessary hatred among children and the case is the same when it comes to chieftaincy and politics.