Rawlings Chastises Otumfuo For failure to reprimand media

June 22, 1999 By Richmond Keelson

Accra - The expression in their faces betrayed their inner feelings astonishment, shock and bewilderment.

It was Friday, June 18, and true to the Rawlings brash identity which he has exhibited throughout his 18-year rule, the revered Ghanaian chieftaincy institution became the latest target of insult from the President.

A feeling of despondency dawned on the new Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and his delegation of 26 paramount chiefs from the Asanteman Council, who paid a courtesy call on the President, Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, at the Castle, Osu. The visit was to thank the President for his assistance to Asanteman during the period when the late Otumfuo Opoku Ware II was sick, for assistance offered after his death and the subsequent funeral and also to introduce the new Chief to the President.

Assuming the role of a commander, berating his troops for not carrying out his wishes, the President's visible anger stemmed from the Government's inability to get its favoured candidate, Nana Akwasi Agyemang, to ascend the Golden Stool.

He took the entire Asanteman Council including Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to task for not defending Nana Akwasi Agyemang when the media was writing "nonsense about him".

The media, in the run-up to the selection of Otumfuo's successor, presented profiles of all those vying for the position of Asantehene where Akwasi Agyemang, the Kumasi Metropolian Assembly boss who was also one of the contestants, had exposed his adversities during the early stages of the revolution.

In the words of the President, Akwasi Agyemang, as a royal, has a rare privilege of dressing in full regalia just like other royals do. That, the President added, he (Akwasi Agyemang) did not do and instead carried on the duty of Chief Sanitary Inspector, an action the President said was misconstrued by the media.

The President also castigated Otumfuo and his paramount chiefs for not commenting on the recent row between the churches and the Ga traditional rulers during which some callers on an Accra FM station had reduced to an Asante-Ga dichotomy.

Listen to the President: "When somebody with an Akan surname called one of the FM stations to say that Gas should not compare themselves to Asantes, none of you (Asanteman Council), not even your Chief condemned it."

The President, whose speech was marked with references like 'your Chief', 'Osei Tutu' without recourse to the title Otumfuo, also showed a lot of disdain towards Asanteman.

"Even you Asantes, your Chief has categorically said Asante will not survive as an island," he reiterated.

The speech of a Presidential aide, Professor Kofi Awoonor, also emphasised the ethnic strand that the Castle meeting assumed.

According to Prof. Awoonor, although he is an Ewe, he uses a Ghanaian passport which shows him more as a Ghanaian than an Ewe.

Other government functionaries who spoke made similar comments on the ethnic dimension of the meeting.

On his part, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II assured the President of Asanteman's preparedness to work closely with Government.

The Asantehene's delegation included the Mamponghene, Nana Osei Bonsu; Essumejahene, Nana Oduro Numapau; Ejisuhene, Nana Aboagye Agyei; Daasebre Oti Boateng, New Juabenhene; and his brother, Juabenhene Nana Otuo Serebuo.

The government side was represented by Prof.. Kofi Awoonor, Alhaji M.A. Seidu, a Minister of State; Mr. D.O. Agyekum, Greater Accra Minister; Ms Faustina Nelson, Vice Chairman of NDC; and the Ashanti Regional Minister, Kojo Yankah.