REFRAIN FROM DIRTY POLITICS — DARWUTEY VI (PAGE 15)

THE President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, Ologo Darwutey VI, has appealed to political parties to refrain from the dirty politics that seeks to incite the youth to engage in violent acts to destroy lives and property.
Such incitement, he noted, could also spark lawlessness, petty squabbles and bitterness among the people before, during and after the elections, a situation that could destabilise the country.
“If we have the interest of our country at heart and are prepared to ensure the success of its democratic dispensation, we must all come together and resolve our differences,” Ologo Darwutey stated.
He made the appeal when he received the Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs and Culture, Mr S. K. Boafo, and the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, at his palace at Somanya on Tuesday.
Mr Boafo is on a three-day working visit to the region to acquaint himself with the various challenges facing traditional authorities and also seek their support towards the conduct of peaceful elections in December.
Ologo Darwutey, who is the Konor of the Yilo Krobo Traditional Area, said healthy politics based on issues that would improve the well-being of the people, as practised in developed countries, had always been the hallmark of many civilised societies.
However, he noted that politics that centred on personal attacks, bitterness and fighting, as practised in the country, had over the years been a major cause of its slow pace of socio-economic development.
“As responsible politicians, we must, therefore, necessarily strive to do away with incitement and rather let our campaign messages centre around issues that will address the needs of the people whose interests we seek to represent,” he stated.
On the role chiefs could play towards peace building in the country, he called on the government and other stakeholders to begin to recognise the enormous authority that the chieftaincy institution wielded and its influence on the people’s behaviour.
Consequently, he suggested the need for political parties to give prior notice to traditional authorities before organising political events such as rallies, since that would enable the rulers to control the behaviour of the people who attended those events, explaining that “it is we who are blamed in the event of any political violence in our communities”.
Ologo Darwutey expressed satisfaction with the peace prevailing between the people of the Yilo and the Manya Traditional areas and appealed to the government to help develop the various tourist attractions in the area, particularly the Krobo Mountain.
Mr Boafo, for his part, noted that although chiefs were barred from active politics, they reserved the right to advise the government, politicians and the people to conduct themselves in a decent manner, especially during elections.
The minister, who dwelt extensively on the Chieftaincy Act, Act 759, which recognises the importance of the chieftaincy institution to the country’s development, appealed to king makers to nominate and enstool only eligible persons to curb chieftaincy disputes in the country.