Minister calls for rethinking of the role of chiefs in politics

Begoro(E/R), Oct. 20, GNA - The Minister of Defence, Mr Albert Kan Dapaah has called for public discussion on the role of traditional authorities in governance both at the national and district levels. He argued that the current position which bars traditional authorities from engaging in active politics ignores the fact that when it came to governance, traditional authorities have a proud success record and accomplishments in pre-colonial Ghana.

Mr Kan Dapaah was speaking at the grand durbar of chiefs and people of Fanteakwa at Begoro, organized to climax the celebration of this year's Odwira Festival of chiefs and people of the Benkum Division of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area at the weekend.

He called for all cultural practices to be made relevant to the times and those considered outmoded discarded or revised to avoid the handing over of dangerous weapons to people who do not care about culture, to continue to attack the relevance and importance of culture. Mr Kan Dapaah said in recent years, the government had added to all sectors of the economy an unprecedented level of development in the political history of the country, to the extent that today in Ghana, good drinking water was available to virtually every Ghanaian. He said the Fanteakwa District Assembly had acquired 350 low tension poles for expansion of electricity in the district and the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr Kwadwo Agyei Addo has drilled seven boreholes in Begoro, which would soon be mechanized into the mainstream of the Ghana Water Company Limited water supply system, to help improve the supply of portable water in the Begoro township. Mr Kan Dapaah called on the people of Fanteakwa to take the HIV/AIDS issue serious because the situation in the district was not the best and explained that while the national HIV prevalence rate according to the 2007 survey was 2.6 per cent, that of the district had shot up to 5.8 per cent.

The Begorohene and Benkumhene of Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, Osabarima Awuah Kotoko, appealed to government to take measures to improve upon the supply of portable water to the resident of Begoro. He explained that, only a small fraction of the people of Begoro enjoyed pipe borne water, while the rest of the population drunk from rivers, shallow wells and ponds, making them vulnerable to water borne diseases. Osabarima Awuah Kotoko also appealed to government to rehabilitate the main Osiem-Begoro road and the Begoro township roads.