Chiefs to partner government for development- Boafo

Cape Coast, July 6, GNA- Chieftaincy and Culture Minister, Mr. Sampson K. Boafo, on Friday reiterated the need for the chieftaincy institutions to be strengthened to enable it to partner government effectively in the development of the nation.

"Nananom are major stakeholders in our governance process", since the vast majority of the people, continue to owe allegiance to the traditional authorities".

Mr Boafo was speaking at a Zonal workshop on the future of the chieftaincy institutions in Ghana under the theme: Ghana @ 50-Resolving the duality in governance-the future of the chieftaincy institutions. He said whereas people were governed by the tenets of the various arms of government and the constitution, they still looked up to the traditional authorities for directives in the areas of development within their communities.

"There is therefore an urgent need to formulate strategies to address the future of the chieftaincy institutions in the context of their role in governance", he said.

Mr Boafo said the Ministry had almost completed consultations with the regional houses of chiefs for the establishment of a Royal College to facilitate the involvement of traditional authorities at the various levels of governance.

He noted that the Ministry had put in place sound strategies to address the inadequate resources, succession problems, reforms within chieftaincy and relationship between district assemblies and the traditional authorities, which the institution had to grapple with over the years.

Nana Nketsia V, Omanhene of the Asikado Traditional area said the institution served as a matrix and a key point for critical self-examination of a people.

He asked Ghanaians to uphold the Chieftaincy institutions for total development of the country's history and its people.

Mr. Klaus D. Loetzer, Resident Representative of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung emphasized the need to recall experiences of the past 50 years as a guide to forge ahead for local development. He said no economy could develop without making use of its resources in combination with innovations and interventions to enhance national development.

Mr. Bern Guri, Executive Director of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD), an NGO said one of its challenges was to ascertain whether government's commitment to integrating Traditional Authorities (TAs) into the local government structure was genuine or a political gimmick.

He said Ghana should utilize the potentials of the TA system and that the CIKOD was documenting some audio visuals on the contributions of TAs to the development of their communities.