The Nandom Chieftaincy Dispute: Sounding the Death Knell

One would like to think that given the widespread disenchantment with the Chieftaincy Institution in Ghana, particularly, its politicization, latter-day politicians would take a cue from this disenchantment and refrain from overt and subterranean acts to further undermine the institution. Wrong, it is business as usual. Preliminary investigations personally conducted by this writer indicate that regional political officials in the Upper-West Region, led by Mr. Ambrose Dery, the Upper-West Regional Minister, have unleashed a disingenuous scheme, contrived to deepen the Nandom Chieftaincy dispute and further deny the Nandom Traditional Area and the Royal Family from enjoying their right to peace and tranquility – a peace which has eluded Nandom following the death of Naa Polkuu Konkuu Chiir in 1984.

It is alleged that Mr. Ambrose Dery, conniving with the embattled, de facto, government-appointed Nandom Naa? Imoru Puobe Puore, has unleashed what is believed to be Mr. Dery’s Strategy for winning the 2008 Nandom Parliamentary seat. The said strategy, operationally and tactically akin to a Mafia Manifesto to divide and conquer, is already underway as I write. For example, on or about November 10, 2006, Mr. Dery, through Dr. Edward Gyader, convened a meeting of a motley lot of aggrieved youth. The purpose was to convince these young men to withdraw their support for Rear Admiral Dzang, one of the Pretenders to the Nandom throne, now dubiously occupied by Naa? Imoru Puore. Following the meeting, Mr. Dery sent word to Naa? Imoru to the effect that “… well, you are in luck. The youth on Dzang’s side have decided to withdraw their support for him. I have instructed them to meet with you. When they come, please, please, please, treat them with courtesy. This is our best chance to defeat Dzang permanently”. One would think Dzang is running for MP in 2008? No, yet it is a fixation with Mr. Dery and the corrupt Nandom Naa? that somehow, Dzang’s demise and their political fortunes are favourably linked. Yet, Mr. Dery’s advice to Naa? Imoru, in the aftermath of the “youth meeting” may be considered good advice, but good advice to a fool is a much wasted effort. Typical of Naa? Imoru, he even, prior to meeting with the so-called youth, started boasting about his prior advice to other Dzang supporters (in the chieftaincy dispute) that they will return to grovel at his feet. This instinctively upset the so-called youth terribly. If history is anything to go by, the so-called youth should have relied on that instinct for it is largely characteristic of Naa? Imoru to brutalize the very people who lend him support. In fact in 2004, when Mr. Ambrose Dery thrice collapsed after loosing to Dr. Ben Kuubuor in the Parliamentary elections, Naa? Imoru remarked to the effect that “…I still have my chieftaincy and I made money; it is the stupid Ambrose who wanted votes. Now he’s ended up on a hospital bed”. Sadly, Mr. Dery knows this but is blinded by his inordinate ambition to ultimately represent Nandom in Parliament. Then again, may be he doesn’t know it, or doesn’t want to know – it is called folly and it is much worse an affliction to have than ignorance. So since the last election, Mr. Dery has been busy crafting his most wicked Strategy yet – the dismemberment of the Nandom Royal Family to gain one miserly Parliamentary seat? What a trade-off!

Ordinarily, two persons’ affliction should be no cause for alarm. However, when one considers that the very youth who met with Mr. Dery, were themselves victims of Mr. Dery’s and Naa? Imoru’s brutality nine months ago, in an incident reported in the March 30, 2006 edition of the Ghanaian Times by one Mathew Ayoo, it is cause for concern indeed. The leader of the said youth, one Ben Kyella, popularly called “Rasta” who was brutalized beyond recognition by Policemen on the orders of Mr. Dery and Naa? Imoru, for daring to avail himself as a witness against Naa? Imoru, in a case involving the theft of cattle in the Nandom Traditional Area, is slated to become Mr. Dery’s “Youth Organizer” for his 2008 Parliamentary bid. Messrs. Rasta’s and Mr. Charles Wobnyineh’s (another accomplice) specific grievance is that Dzang is awarding his business contracts to outsiders to the exclusion of Family members, especially Mr. Wobnyineh, who is himself a contractor. Apparently, even an individual has no right to administer his private resources independently. Everyone knows that those who most retain public contracts are government officials. Mr. Wobnyineh will do well to contact the Architectural and Engineering Services (AES), the Government’s mandated administrator of public contracts, for the award of any contracts he is interested in. Dzang does not control the award of public contracts; and while at it, he can call on his political patrons to fast-forward the process. If anyone has a specific agenda to award contracts exclusively to cronies and “supporters”, it is Mr. Dery, who has made that agenda the centre of his administration’s policy in the award of contracts. Otherwise this grievance is idiotic and without merit. But of course Rasta has accepted the offer of Youth Organizer for Mr. Dery, which conveniently coincides with the other grand plan of Mr. Dery’s – the reconstruction of the Nandom Chieftaincy Institution into a rotational system of Gates, much like the Wa or Dagbon system. Readers are fully aware of the crises that now beset the two institutions partly as a result of the politically vested Gate System. This new Gate System offers in Mr. Dery’s and Rasta’s view, an opportunity for Rasta’s family to aspire to the Nandom throne. Even then, one would argue that creation of a good Gate System must involve the full participation of all members of the Royal Family. More accurately, the Nandom Chieftaincy System has NEVER been about Gates and Rotation. It has always been a One Family affair. The so-called Gate System which Mr. Dery is now creating is effectively disuniting the Family. Family Elders this writer interviewed copiously, all of whom are Uncles of Naa? Imoru and therefore senior to him in matters of such cultural importance, are in full and tacit agreement that Mr. Ambrose Dery’s actions are ultra vires his political office and his filial relationship whatever it may be, to the Nandom Royal Family. They say, “? a Ambrose yir mw?r? no”, meaning, “Ambrose is a divider”.

Mr. Ambrose Dery, even as Regional Minister, has no power to constitute any “body” or “commission” to deconstruct and reconstruct an institution such as the Nandom Traditional Council. The Nandom chieftaincy is effectively under the Upper-West Regional House of Chiefs, by law an independent institution, and by implication, under the newly created Ministry of Chieftaincy Affairs. Even this latter ministry, by law cannot do what Mr. Dery is alleged to be trying to do with the Nandom chieftaincy. Under a democracy, such an act amounts to high treason, for the Constitution of Ghana (1992) expressly forbids political interference in chieftaincy matters, and what Mr. Dery is doing constitutes interference even in its loosest definitions. The loosely constructed “stakeholder analysis” by which Mr. Dery privately claims to have a stake in the Nandom affair is bunkum at its best. Instead of destructively focusing on the Nandom chieftaincy and propping up a criminal chief, Mr. Dery should get a life, and focus on addressing the endemic poverty in the region.

The twists to this wicked orchestration even transcend deeper. A certain member of the Royal Family, himself much younger in the scheme of things, has arrogantly claimed that others such as the Delle and Gyader families (Gyader is NOT a member of the Royal Family mind you), have impressed upon him to intervene and settle the chieftaincy dispute. That person, a Mr. David Kpelle, an otherwise God-fearing, Bible-totting family member, now finds himself up against the wrath of an entire Family he naively thought he could withstand by dint of his education. Mr. David Kpelle’s idea of intervention and peaceful resolution amounts to hypocritically renouncing the Family. By coercing and deception, Mr. Kpelle got one illiterate uncle to sign a document prepared by Mr. Ambrose Dery. Further investigations reveal that this cross-over antic pulled by Mr. David Kpelle stems from his claim that Rear Admiral Dzang is against a peaceful resolution of the Nandom dispute. The questions to ask Mr. David Kpelle is – of all the aggrieved parties to the Nandom dispute, which among them has resorted to the statutorily established and peaceful avenues to resolve the matter? Who among them, in years gone by, asked the then Elders, and has continued to ask current Elders, as a matter of principle, that the dispute be resolved amicably within the Family? The answer to both these questions is “Dzang”. To objective observers of this sad, sad story of Nandom, it is awkward and shameful that this Bible-totting man who wears his religion like an only shirt, has so quickly ignored the fundamental teachings of his religion, in favour of a malicious plan to hasten the demise of his own Family. Well, as the Akans say “S? aboa b? ka wo’a, ? fri won tuma mu”; meaning, harm comes from within. Clearly, the insightful story of Judas’s role in the Gospel is lost on Mr. David Kpelle; but he is not beyond redemption. Even he must know that at least? What a Christian!!

On the contrary, Imoru is the only one who has bullied, coerced, brutalized and abused supporters of other contestants in order to retain his brutal grip on the Nandom chieftaincy. In this effort, he has received unabashed support from Mr. Ambrose Dery. The document originated by Mr. Dery has the signatories declaring their withdrawal of support for Dzang, in favour of Imoru. The same document is also the one that illegally promulgates the establishment of a rotational Gate System in the Nandom Chieftaincy, with the following Gates in effect: (1) Chireh Yir (2) Chiir Yir (3) Boro Yir and (4) Fatchu Yir. What is particularly interesting about this arrangement is the fact that Naa? Imoru’s house (Nadjo Yir) and Dzang Yir are deemed part of the Chiir Gate (Chiir Yir). Thus with Naa? Imoru being deemed the substantive Nandom Naa and since the system is rotational, if Imoru dies, the Chieftaincy will rotate to the other three remaining “Gates”, effectively cutting Dzang out of any serious contention for the throne. And of course, hopefully, by the time the Chieftaincy rotates to Chiir Yir again, Dzang would, according to Mr. Dery’s calculations, be dead. May we at least recognize this for what it truly is – the Master Plan to circumvent Dzang.

There are a number of serious problems with this system. First the fact that Mr. Ambrose Dery and Dr. Edward Gyader are effectively not in direct lineage to the Nandom Royal Family begs the question as to why non-members are interfering in an affair they have no business meddling in? To be fair, both Ambrose and Gyader are extended nephews of the Family, but it precludes them from matters such as the chieftaincy. Second, the Ambrose Dery Gate Rotation System starts on a false and an illegal premise to the effect that Naa? Dr? Imoru is the substantive legal chief of Nandom.

Readers will recall my detailed account of how Dr? Imoru got to his current position as Nandom Naa, the substance of which matter is still before the Upper-West Regional House of Chiefs and the courts . One would infer that a fair and incorrigible system of justice would have placed an injunction on Dr? Imoru and any person(s) from holding themselves as Nandom Naa, until a decision is reached by a competent court of jurisdiction. In fact, the matter of a separate criminal case against Dr? Imrou is worth mentioning. If convicted, Naa? Imoru statutorily and culturally would be precluded from holding any high office, including that of Nandom Naa, and that appears to be an inconvenient probability for Mr. Dery and Naa? Imoru. So such a conviction will not see the light of day as far as the two are concerned.

Most people agree that any system based upon such false and illegal premises is doomed even before it starts. Third, the brazen resort to coercion of the Elderly and youth of the Royal Family, in furtherance of a parochial political goal, is at the very least malicious and detrimental to the developmental health of Nandom and beyond. But that is not surprising. Mr. Ambrose Dery’s signature operations have always had a violent, coercive component to them. Recently, his involvement in the Wa dispute was classic Ambrose Dery. One wonders whether if he becomes MP for Nandom, he can at all get things done in Parliament through negotiation and consensus, the primary, lawful modus operandi of Parliament. Fourth, as is typical of outsiders, sometimes, we tend to get ahead of ourselves in our zeal to abandon the periphery and get involved in the centre. The “Ambrose Dery Gate System” names Chireh, Chiir, Boro and Fatchu as the main “gates”. Elders intimately familiar with the Royal Family note that this is a travesty of culture, for Chiir uniquely, was the Patriarch of the Family. Fatchu, Delle, Dzang, Bene, Nadjo and others were all sons of Chiir. The current crop of sons – Dr. Delle, Rear Admiral Dzang, etc are Grandsons of Chiir and Naa? Imoru is a Great Grandson. Boro was a nephew. Since the system of inheritance in the Family is hierarchical and patrilineal, it is an egregious blunder to put Chiir (the Patriarch of the Family) at par with his sons (Fatchu and “Chireh”) the so-called “Gate System”. This betrays a simple lack of understanding of Nandom Chieftaincy and ancillary issues thereof; and is this not typical of the meddlers and the outsiders who cannot keep a non-partisan, objective posture on a matter such as this?

Clearly, these two individuals (Mr. Dery and Naa? Imoru) and any other cohorts, who function at their pleasure, are determined to wreak havoc and destruction to anyone who stands in their way to positions of MP for Nandom and Nandom Naa respectively. Sadly, Nandom has now become the euphemism for the obstacles in their way and they are prepared to trade Nandom’s peaceful existence for mediocre political goals. Somehow, they are caught in the moment, forgetting that violence begets violence. Information about King Midas’s ass-like ears was sealed tight in a hole; before Kind Midas left the grounds, the winds were all howling “King Midas has ass’s ears”. Anon, it shall come to pass that both Mr. Dery and Naa? Imoru have… well, ears..., just ears…. Investigations continue….

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