Free Press

The Free Press says Ghanaians have become so apprehensive about the calamity which is befalling the once powerful and revered traditional political institution of chieftaincy. In a front page story headlined: "Reign of death...16 chiefs die in one year", the paper says, unprecedented in the history of this nation, "our chiefs are dying at a rate that gives great cause for concern". According to the Free Press, within a short period of one year, from March 1998 to date, the Chieftaincy Secretariat has recorded the deaths of 15 chiefs and a queenmother. The paper says so continuous is the pace of death that Ghanaians have to mourn the Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, Dormaahene, Nana Agyeman Badu and the Okyehene, Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II in a roll. It says this sad state of affairs paints a gloomy future for the chieftaincy institution whose fortunes started waning at the turn of this century.