Abolish Council Of State - Nana Akuoko Sarpong

The Omanhene of Agogo, Nana Akuoko Sarpong, a former Presidential Advisor on Chieftaincy Affairs, has called for the abolition of the Council of State and the establishment of a second chamber of Parliament, partly comprising chiefs.

He said that arrangement would enable chiefs to take part in national governance and make useful contributions to national development. Nana Akuoko Sarpong was speaking in an interview with the ‘Times’ at the international conference on chieftaincy in Accra.

The former Presidential Advisor maintained that the nation has a crisis of development on its hands because of the use of alien structures in governance and said the time is due for chiefs to make a valuable contribution to lift the nation out of the doldrums. He observed that the structures for running the state, imposed on the country by the colonial masters has failed.

He said it is therefore time to bring in an indigenous structure such as the chieftaincy institution to help run affairs. Nana Sarpong, a former chairman of the National Commission on Culture, submitted that by that move, the country would be embarking upon constitutional reforms that would not only reflect the Ghanaian culture, but would also make possible the fusion of “our own system of governance and that of the western world.” He maintained that chieftaincy is dying under the current system of governance because there was no real power for the chiefs under the prevailing circumstances.

He said “The whole structural base of the institution of chieftaincy has been undermined by progressive legislation from the time of Nkrumah. “If we are to rediscover ourselves as part of our cultural renaissance, then, we must use the structures which are close to the people as part of the basic institutions to run the nation”. Nana Akuoko Sarpong also called for the appointment of one third of the members of the district assemblies by chiefs adding, “that is the only way we can have real representation at the district level.”