Is Ghana a Quasi-Monarchy or a Republic?

Friends, Ghanaians, countrymen, please lend me your ears. I have come to ask you a question that is baffling me but not to insult your intelligence. The attitudes of some of our chiefs and queens make it appear that Ghana is still a monarchy but for the last time I checked, Ghana has been a republic since 1^st July 1960. “Ghana became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence on 6 March 1957. On 1 July 1960, Ghana was declared a republic with Kwame Nkrumah as its first President”.

However, some chiefs, especially my own Asante “Overlord” Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, have until today been conducting themselves as though we are still living in a total monarchy. I can’t comprehend this no matter how much I try to. These chiefs have the unrestrained powers to sell their stool lands to pocket the money for their personal use as if they descended from the sky with the lands attached to their umbilical cord as a gift bestowed on them by God. They have the audacity to disrespect their subjects to the point of declaring to be mightier than the laws of the land as contrarily enshrined in the nation’s Constitution and Court rules.

With their attitudes as in daily display, I am tempted to ask if Ghana is a quasi-monarchy or indeed a republic. How come that a chief or king can command the nation’s security forces (soldiers and police personnel) to do his bidding contrary to the stipulations of the Constitution and acceptable court rules?

Is it not these chiefs and queens that are selling the lands under their domain to foreigners and some Ghanaian indigenes to do surface mining to cause irreparable destruction to the nation’s ecosystem? Are they not the same people who criminally swindle innocent persons of their hard earned money by selling them building plots which they had already sold to other interested persons? Why should they be given such powers to make foolish and meaningless of the nation’s Constitution and the status of Ghana as a republic?

What is a republic, one may ask? A republic is “a country without a king or queen, usually governed by elected representatives of the people and a president”. Despite the fact that Ghana has chiefs and queens, their roles should only be ceremonial without having powers to have the security forces at their beck and call as seen to be exercised by the overrated Asante “Overlord” Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

What is quasi? Quasi-means seeming or to show that something is almost, but not completely, the thing described. Therefore, Ghana seems to be a monarchy (a state or nation in which the supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in a monarch) but it is not. Therefore, the chiefs behaving as though we are still living in the 17^th Century where they had power to kill at pleasure, should please be mindful of their actions, taking note that we are in the 21^st Century where we are governed by common laws which have no room from their bestiality, discrimination and intimidations.

In the United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands and other civilized nations, they have Kings and Queens whose roles are only ceremonial. The Presidents, Prime Ministers and governments of the mentioned nations are more powerful than the Kings and Queens. The Kings and Queens never do anything that will contravene the laws of their countries or tries to undermine the President, the Prime Minister or the government. They know their limit and should they dare trespass it which they won’t even do, the President or the Prime Minister will put them squarely in their place.

Why is it that in Ghana we have laws but we allow our traditional leaders to flout them with impunity? Is it because we are blacks and reason like blacks with no sense in our bulky cranium? What the heck is going on in Ghana and in the entire of continental Africa, I want to know?

Should we have to go through bloody civil revolutions before our laws can work satisfactorily with our institutions becoming stronger than the human monsters we have helped create by our abundance of ignorance and cowardice?

Ghana is a republic but not a monarchy so we should curtail the powers of our chiefs. If they cannot exercise the limited powers given to them to help make life better for their subjects but will rather use them to abuse the people, then we had better take the powers away from them.

I totally disagree with Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on his request or suggestion to His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to modify the Constitutions to give the chiefs more powers with regard to the governance of the nation. Even with the powers that the chiefs have in present-day Ghana, look how irresponsibly they are behaving let alone, giving them more powers. Will they not begin to slaughter human beings like chicken to bury their dead as used to happen among the Asantes in the olden days?

I respect our traditions and customs but not in their crude state of abusing people’s human rights as it is obviously exhibited by the Asante “Overlord “.

Rockson Adofo