Let’s make our queens part of decision making

For well over a decade governments across the world have been pursuing affirmative programmes with the view to placing women in decision-making positions.

For instance, in Ghana when political appointments are made, many people, especially, women’s groups, seek the inclusion of more women. Even at the conduct of parliamentary primaries, the political parties are encouraged to field female candidates in constituencies considered ‘safe-seats’.

But while the struggle for affirmative action has so far centered on the modern political administrative landscape, the traditional sector has, either consciously or unconsciously, often been overlooked. That has been so because of the perception that our traditional systems recognize only the chief and not the queen.

And yet, the queens continue to play crucial role with regard to the installation of new chiefs and administration of the traditional areas.

When some queens few years ago raised concerns about their exclusion from the Regional and National Houses of Chiefs and requested that they be included, nobody gave them a hearing.

But today believes that if we are to succeed in our endeavors, we must implement illusionist policies instead of excluding any segment of the society. And we believe the advice by renowned educationist, Kwegyir Aggrey that “if you educate a man, you educate an individual and if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation” should guide and influence our thoughts and actions.

Today will therefore be happy to see an amendment to the constitution of National House of Chiefs (NHC) to enable our queens to become members of the House and those at the regional levels.

Today thinks that there should not be any deliberate policy to exclude queens from the NHC and the Regional Houses of Chiefs (RHC)

We believe the NHC will be creating fertile grounds for further conflicts if some queens are excluded from the NHC and RHC in so far as they qualify to be part. We believe the criteria used in selecting the chiefs to be part of the NHC or RHC can equally apply to the queens.

Moreover, the queens are not as many as the chiefs in the country. In fact, some regions do not have queens at all.

The role of our queens in the governance process at the traditional level cannot be downplayed as the way forward for progress is a true partnership between our chiefs and queens.

It is about time the government backed its intentions with action to get the queens to serve in the houses of chiefs.