Ga Chiefs fight National Security Coordinator

The National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), has stepped on the toes of the Ga Traditional Council, the membership of which has as it were, abandoned the forthcoming lifting of the month-long ban on drumming and noise-making to the one-time dreaded 64 Regiment Commander to perform.

The unprecedented act of anger on the part of the Ga chiefs is said to have been sparked by what a source said is the incessant intrusion in matters strictly traditional in nature by the National Security Coordinator in recent times.

The source added that the Council has wind of a pending plan to topple the Ga Mantse during the forthcoming June 4 celebration activities by elements of the uprising.

According to a correspondence made available to the DAILY GUIDE, dated June 1, 2009 and signed by E.B. Amo for the registrar, "the Ga Traditional Council must make it known to the public that the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Tawiah III, and the Gbese Mantse, Nii Okaidja, will not beat the Odadao drums this year to signal the lifting of the ban on drumming and noise-making."

By the announcement, the traditional council will not beat the traditional drums on Thursday to signal the end of a month-long period of a ban on drumming and noise-making in the area.

A few weeks ago, the National Security Coordinator was embroiled in Ga traditional politics when he held on to the key to the Gbese Palace.

It was a court order which eventually compelled the coordinator to reverse his decision and to allow the traditional order to take place.

His action is being viewed by a section of the political landscape as indicative of a grand scheme to rock the boat of the Ga traditional arrangement and a clear interference of government in chieftaincy matters.

The decision to abandon the traditional procedure, the correspondence went on, "was created by the intervention of the National Security Council in the customary rites of the Ga people, an unprecedented act, which has tarnished the otherwise solemn process of activities to mark the beginning of the Homowo Festival."

The Homowo is an important festival in the traditional calendar of the Gas and is celebrated to mark the end of hunger which afflicted the people in the early days of their settlement in this part of the world.

A source at the Ga Traditional Council has expressed surprise that today, the lifting of the ban on drumming must be preceded by a permission from the National Security Council and not the Chieftaincy Ministry, The Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, or even the AMA.

The correspondence added, "During a series of meetings held between the Gbese regime and the National Security Council, the organisation assumed the authority to impose upon the Ga State, certain individuals who were to perform the crucial rites for the Gbese Division."

The Gbese Division has the sole responsibility of performing this traditional role but with the intervention of the National Security Council, the status quo has definitely changed.

The Ga Traditional Council has frowned upon the delegation of the authority to lift the ban on the Sakumo Wulomo by the National Security Council, explaining that the Sakumo Wulomo has neither the standing nor traditional right to participate in rites of the Gbese Division.

The involvement of the Security Council in the traditional procedure, the Ga Council maintains, "causes a taboo which we as Ga people will not want to either accept or consider as a precedent."

Concluding, the Ga Traditional Council has decided to leave the rest of the rites to the National Security Council to carry out, adding that this is an unprecedented assumed authority.

In an unrelated development, the Ga-Dangme Forward Movement, a non-political pressure group formed to promote the interests of the Ga-Dangme people, national unity and cohesion through diversity, is organizing a public lecture to commemorate the 30th anniversary of June 4 putsch.

The function is scheduled to take place at the Kama Conference Centre today at 5pm.

Speakers at the event include Major Kojo Boakye Djan, head of government and spokesperson of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and Hon. Prof. Mike Oquaye, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

The theme of the engagement is Revolutionary Politics In Ghana: The Impact After 30 Years Of June 4 Uprising.

Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, former Ghanaian envoy to Serbia, is expected to be the chairman of the function.