The day BA Chief contracted verbal diarrhea

“Chiefs will run and leave theirs sandals behind” -Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

It is not for nothing that the framers of our constitution stated categorically that chiefs should not take part in active politics. The framers of the constitution knew that if chiefs take part in active politics, they will expose themselves to insults since people who live in their domain belong to different political parties. The chieftaincy institution is so sacred that Ghanaians have all come to accept that it should be respected.

In the Northern Region in particular, the chiefs come next to Mohammed and God. You dare not insult a chief. And no chief in that area will open his mouth so wide to incur the displeasure of his subjects.

The NDC as a political party has the history of destroying chiefs. They lured Nana Akuoko Sarpong the Omanhene of Agogo Traditional Area into active politics and at the end of the day the man lost respect among his people in particular and Ghanaians in general. Today, Nana Akuoko Sarpong is old, sick and living in seclusion. The NDC has abandoned him because he is no more useful to them.

There are many chiefs in Ghana today who have lost the respect that they deserve as traditional rulers because of their open support for the NDC. Ever since Nana Asor Nkrawiri made that statement, the unprintable words which were used against him on radio stations cannot be repeated here. Even in the Volta Region where the NDC claim to be their ‘world bank’, the chiefs there weigh their words before making any comment when any president or presidential candidate visits their palaces. That was the more reason why they enjoyed a lot of development projects when Ex-President Kufour was in power. Kufour knew he had no support in the Volta Region but he tried to work so hard to earn their respect and trust. If you check the results of all the general election in the country you will realize that the votes garnered by the NPP in the Volta Region have been appreciating.

Nana Asor Nkrawiri II, the Omanhene of Sunyani Traditional Area has become a laughing stock in Ghana today since he promised President John Mahama that he and the Brong Ahafo Region will vote 80% for the NDC come 2016. As an educationist, he should have been smarter when the president visited his palace. You see, no matter how hungry you are, you don’t eat fufu with two hands. Nana Nkrawiri has heard that the President and his wife have been dashing some chiefs V8 and Toyota Prado Landcruisers and so in order to get his share of the booty, he opened his mouth so wide and ended up losing respect among his own people at Sunyani. When Nana sat in state to receive the president, he immediately contracted verbal diarrhea and started vomiting words. So this chief has the funny feeling that he can force the people of Brong Ahafo Region to vote for the NDC? The truth is that he cannot even force his small household to vote for the NDC.

Sunyani Traditional Area is just a tiny area as compared to other traditional areas in the Brong Ahafo Region. In fact, greater parcels of land in the Sunyani Traditional Area are owned by the Dormaa Omanhene. We have more powerful traditional rulers who control larger population in their areas of jurisdictions than what Nana Asor Nkrawiri has. The Sunyani paramountcy was created just recently and so for such a new paramount chief to open his mouth to say Brong Ahafo will vote 80% for John Mahama and the NDC is laughable. Mark my words, soon, very soon, you will see this chief riding in a luxurious landcruiser donated by President Mahama.

The sad aspect of what the chief said was that “no government ever did anything good for the people of Brong Ahafo than what John Mahama has done”. This man thinks because Sunyani is the Brong Ahafo Regional capital, the town represents the region as far as election is concerned. If this chief had traveled across the length and breadth of the region, he would have realized how J.J Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufour developed the region. If we are talking about roads in the Brong Ahafo Region, no president or government can match Kufour and Rawlings administration. As for education, apart from Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, only Rawlings and Kufour made sure the Brong Ahafo got her fair share. As for John Mahama, all what he does is to promise.

Nana Nkrawiri showered a lot of praises on Mr. Mahama because his government has been able to tar the Sunyani ring road. Funny and forgetful chief!! In the first place, which regime constructed the ring road for Mahama to tar? Ironically, one of the most prestigious edifices located in Sunyani is right behind the shanty palace of the Sunyani chief. In the seventies, the then Head of State, General Kutu Acheampong saw the need to build the Cocoa House in Sunyani to honour cocoa farmers of the region. Sadly this draft-playing chief closed his eyes to all these and told who cared to listen that John Mahama is the best among all who ever ruled Ghana as far as the development of Brong Ahafo Region is concerned.

I sincerely do not blame this particular chief because apart from his pension pay as a retired educationist, he has no land to sell as his other colleagues do and so he had to stoop so low to gain favour of Mr. Mahama who undoubtedly might order the Regional Minister to ‘settle’ him as a praise singer. If the President of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of chiefs had made that unfortunate and irresponsible statement, I would not have bothered myself writing this piece because at least he leads all the chiefs in the region. But for a paramount chief like Nana Nkrawiri to use the name of the region for his parochial means, I think he deserves the disgrace and insults being poured on him by his own people.

What somebody out there should tell this former teacher is that not even the Asantehene can tell the president that the people of Ashanti Region will vote for him because the Otumfour knows very well that beyond the Manhyia Palace he has no power to decide who any citizen within his domain should vote for. And what the chief of Sunyani fails to understand is that even though Mr. Mahama was giggling when he made that statement, he (Mahama) did not believe him.

John Mahama has been in the system for quite a long time and knows how chiefs like Nana Nkrawiri talk when they need favours. At the backyard of Nana Nkrawiri, both Sunyani West and East constituencies have always been won by the NPP. What therefore is the guarantee that this time around the people of Sunyani, where he (Nana Nkrawiri) casts his vote will vote for the NDC? The unsurpassed economic hardships? The Dumor madness? The corruption menace? The consistent fall of the Cedi against major currencies? The cocaine trade? The ostentatious lifestyle of government officials against the backdrop of poverty? The inability of people to pay school fees of their wards? The high crime rate? The daily demonstrations of workers against the government? Or may be the dashing out of luxurious cars to chiefs and queenmothers will make the people of Brong Ahafo Region vote for Mr. Mahama.

Chiefs like Asor Nkrawiri are dragging the revered name of chieftaincy into the mud and they must be called to order.

Before the white man came to introduce his type of governance in Africa, we used to have our chiefs who ruled with wisdom. The relevance of chiefs, as it were, in those days, is still very relevant today. If you are a chief and you want your people to respect you, don’t do open politics. As for the politicians, they will do anything to grab power even if they could wipe out the reputation of a chief like what they have done to Nana Asor Nkrawiri. Everybody in Sunyani knows very well that Nana Asor Nkrawiri is an NDC sympathizer.

Nobody has any problem with that because as a citizen of Ghana he too has the right to move in sympathy with one political party or the other. The problem people have with this over-zealous chief turned politician is the open support he gave to the John Mahama’s NDC.

Other chiefs in Ghana should learn a lesson from what has happened to Nana Asor Nkrawiri if they want us to respect them. They should steer away from active politics, otherwise, Hassacas!!