Politicians involved in chieftaincy disputes

Sekondi, Sept. 27, GNA - Awulae Annor Adjaye III, President of the Nzemamanle Council has accused politicians of fomenting chieftaincy and land disputes and later turning to blame the chiefs for the problem. He said several politicians use every means possible to undermine chiefs who do not support them to make them unpopular in the eyes of the communities.

Awulae Adjaye made these remarks at a day's sensitisation seminar on the report of national African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council (NAPRM-GC).

The seminar was organised by the APRM Council for members of the Western Regional House of Chiefs and selected queen mothers at Sekondi. Awulae Adjaye also accused lawyers of supporting "aliens' to ascend to thrones, which they do not have the right over. He stressed that individualism, ethnicity and tribal sentiments were a setback to national goals aspirations. "We are a conglomerate of individual tribal groupings and until we changed and adopted more positive approaches, our focus on development would not be achieved," he said.

He said to move the nation forward Ghanaians must bury individual and tribal belongingness and adopt nationhood. Dr Francis Appiah, Executive Secretary of the NAPRM-GC said there was the need to modernise the chieftaincy institution and equip it to adopt alternative dispute resolution to make it more responsive to the needs of society.

Chiefs should also be encouraged to play an effective role in the district assembly's process, he said. He advised chiefs to promote social and cultural rights among the people.

He called for an improved and verifiable succession among the various clans and groupings to safeguard and prevent non-royals from ascending stool or skins.