MINISTER URGES CHIEFS TO ENSURE PEACE (PAGE 31)

Story: Rose Hayford Darko, Tema

The Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs and Culture, Mr S. K. Boafo, has urged chiefs in the country to use their positions as custodians of culture to rectify situations that have caused instability in the chieftaincy institution.
He said chiefs must take initiatives that were development-oriented to ensure peace and stability in the institution.
Mr Boafo, in making these assertions, therefore called on them to prevent situations in which people who were not royals infiltrated their ranks to seek to occupy the stool and skin.
He was speaking at the commissioning of officers for a chieftaincy consultancy of the Roses Investment (GH) Limited company at Tema, which was attended by a cross-section of chiefs from the southern part of Ghana.
Mr Boafo observed that as the first establishment in the country with the vision to offer general chieftaincy consultancy services, it would be prudent to operate within the tenets of the profession.
He said there was the need to educate chiefs to enable them to protect the legacy that had all the values of culture, discipline and peace.
Mr Boafo disclosed that there was a bill in parliament to amend the Chieftaincy Act 370 of 1971, which would provide capacity building training for chiefs in Ghana.
He said the power of arbitration would be restored to them and therefore the training would enhance their capacity and urged them to do better to salvage the nation from copying foreign culture.
Mr Boafo observed that the chieftaincy institution was sacred and continued to grow stronger and therefore denied that it will be scrapped as was being speculated.
He emphasised that those who used their monies to entice the leadership of the institution were the ones who brought about chaos.
Mr Boafo stated that chiefs in the country were learned and could help build the economy by initiating projects. He commended those who had set the pace to bring projects into the country.
Mr Boafo referred to some negative ways of speaking and dressing and eating habits, which some Ghanaians had adopted to the detriment of the country’s culture.
He hoped the consultancy would help educate not only chiefs but everybody who had something to do with chieftaincy to curb chieftaincy disputes.
Mr Boafo cautioned the management of the Roses Investment (GH) Limited to use their services to bring peace between two parties.
The President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, Togbega Gabusu II, who chaired the function, explained that some problems that people considered as chieftaincy were rather ethnic and therefore called on the company to educate the public on those differences to ensure that the chieftaincy institution became a noble one.
He congratulated the President on the recognition he had given the chieftaincy institution and called on chiefs in the country to reciprocate the gesture and unite to help build the a peaceful nation.
Togbega Gabusu, who is also the Fiaga of Gbi Traditional Area in the Volta Region, urged chiefs in the country to utilise the services of the consultancy and tap their experiences for advice.
He observed that the coming of the consultancy, especially when the country was opting for Alternative Dispute Resolution system, was timely and important to help solve some chieftaincy problems currently in some areas.
The Executive Director of Roses Investment (GH) Limited, Mr Harry Anthony Attipoe, in his address, noted that the objective to set up the consultancy was to contribute to the solution of chieftaincy problems.
He said his outfit would render services including general chieftaincy consultancy services, services on customary practices and usage, mediation using ADR systems and seminars and workshops for chiefs, queens and kinsmen, among others.
Mr Attipoe gave the assurance that the company was ready to face challenges of the time.