INVOLVE CHIEFS IN GOVERNANCE (SPREAD, JULY 2)

THE President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Ransford Tetteh, has called for the active involvement of traditional rulers in national governance and development.
That, he said, was to enable them to complement the efforts of the government.
The active involvement of chiefs, he said, would also help traditional leaders to mobilise their people for social change and settle protracted land and stool disputes that continued to retard development.
“As traditional leaders, chiefs are an integral part of our society and therefore they are better placed to help deal with the development challenges of today,” Mr Tetteh said.
Mr Tetteh, who is also the Editor of the Daily Graphic, was speaking at the 30th anniversary of the enstoolment of the Oyokohene, Nana Kodua Kesse II, who is also the Adontenhene of New Juaben.
The event, which was on the theme; “30 Years of Progress and Development”, attracted a large number of people from diverse backgrounds to Oyoko on Monday.
The GJA President said although the Constitution barred chiefs from participating in active politics, their role in the country’s decentralisation process and in nation-building could not be overlooked.
He further indicated that the chieftaincy institution, more than ever before, was today leading the crusade for changing the face of development process in the country and the attitudes of the people.
Mr Tetteh, therefore, stressed the need for the people to reduce their over reliance on the central government for their needs to be met at all times.
“If it is leadership that is required to mobilise the people to take their destiny into their own hands, then a lot abounds in our traditional authorities, a reasonable number of whom are not only well educated but are globally exposed and highly development minded,” he added.
According to him, the development mindedness of traditional leaders had spurred many to establish educational funds and enstool development chiefs in their communities.
Mr Tetteh said there were many chiefs who trained as teachers, lawyers, engineers, among other professions, who could mobilise their people for social change.
He, however, reminded chiefs to recognise that they were indispensable agents in the country’s development process and should, therefore, make themselves more relevant in society today.
“If our chiefs make themselves very relevant in society, they will be consulted regularly on key development issues in the country, particularly at the local level,” he explained.
He again reminded chiefs that since culture was dynamic they and the people in general should accept such development dynamics by focusing not only on big infrastructural developments but also on little things that impacted positively on the lives of the people.
On accountability of chiefs to their people, the GJA President debunked the school of thought that chiefs, unlike politicians, were not accountable to their people, a system that had made the chieftaincy institution undemocratic.
“We will appreciate that the democratic values inherent in the chieftaincy institution subject the nomination and installation processes of a chief to a democratic process where kingmakers have the right to reject the nominees of the queen”, he explained.
To buttress his call for the active involvement of chiefs in national development, Mr Tetteh described the achievements of the Oyokohene over three decades as “a watershed” and expressed the hope that he would continue with the good works.
For his part, Nana Kesse called for unity and peaceful co-existence among the people to enable them to join hands with the traditional authority to develop the area.