Gbese chief’s abdication remarks lacked ‘wisdom’ – Kweku Baako

The chief of the Gbese Traditional Area, Nii Ayi Bonte, displayed “total lack of wisdom” when he said he would abdicate his stool if the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the 2016 election, the editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako, has said.

Nii Ayi Bonte, at a durbar prior to the December 7 polls, made a promise to vacate his stool if the NDC lost the elections.

According to the former board member of Accra Hearts of Oak, if Nana Akufo-Addo won the election and subsequently got sworn in as president of Ghana on 7 January, 2017, he would destool himself.

Reacting to the pronouncements by the chief on Kokrokoo on Peace FM Wednesday 14 December, Mr Baako dared Nii Ayi Bonte to emerge from hiding and grant interviews.

In his submission, the award-winning journalist said: “This morning, I watched something on Metro TV which I’m happy about and laughed throughout. The Gbese Mantse, my own friend in football because we both support Accra Hearts of Oak, they replayed his video and when he was called on phone today he said he was not granting interviews.

“He has also vamoosed into a rat hole… Do you see the point we were making that it was unwise for chiefs to put themselves in that partisan way and some of them went to the extreme? Now you went to sit at a durbar, a public space, and pledged to abdicate if one party loses. Why would you make such a pledge? This is total lack of wisdom and wisdom is a key attribute of chiefs or chieftaincy; it’s a requirement. When we were saying, they didn’t listen. You have somebody who consistently engages in political buffoonery out there insulting our intelligence. Today, the chief has been disgraced, he is hiding in a hole and when he is called, he says: ‘I’m not granting interviews.’ They should drag him out of the hole and put the microphone right in front of him to talk so we can listen.”

Mr Baako further quizzed: “Now, all the other chiefs who are listening, do you see the wisdom in the point we were making? What control does the chief have over his subjects who vote in secrecy?

“This should tell people the wisdom…in the constitutional injunction that chiefs ought not to play an active role in active party politics. Apart from short people like us who admonished them and they weren’t listening, they had a guy like Koku Anyidoho running riot and abusing and insulting everybody. Where is he? He should get out from the rat hole and come here…”