National House of Chiefs should be Pro-active - Professor Millar

Bolgatanga, July 27, GNA- Professor David Millar, Lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS) has said that unless the National House of Chiefs adopts strong advocacy methods in fighting for their rights, their concerns would never be addressed. The Lecturer made the observation on Friday at a three-day workshop on Chieftaincy and Good Governance held in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region.

The Workshop organised by the Nana Nketsia IV Trust, Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisation Development (CIKOD) and sponsored by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) was aimed at empowering chiefs to enable them to play more meaningful roles in the socio- economic advancement of the country.

Professor Millar stated that the Disability and the Domestic Violence Acts could not have come about if people with disab ility and women did not pressurise Government to pass those Bills. He stressed that as custodians of land, chiefs have the power to pressurise Government through the Ministry of Local Government for the passage of legislations to address their concerns. He cited instances where District Assemblies, District Chief Executives and Members of Parliament embarked on development projects without the awareness of chiefs who were the custodians of land. Professor Millar expressed concern about the clause in the constitution that debarred chiefs from getting involved in active politics and asked the House of Chiefs to advocate against that. " If a Cross-Section of people in Government are advocating for Ghanaians in the Diaspora to exercise their franchise why should chiefs who are in the country be denied from engaging in active politics", the Professor pointed out. He stated that as traditional authorities they had a major role to play in the socio-economic development of the country and wondered why they were not effectively involved in decision-making. He cited instances where traditional rulers were not given the chance to make an input in the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) and the recent African Union Summit held in Accra. Professor Millar urged the National House of Chiefs to forge ahead and form a United Africa Traditional Authority for the total development of the African Continent.

In a speech read for him, the Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr Samson K Boafo announced that the Ministry and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment had almost completed consultations with the various Regional Houses of Chiefs to establish a Royal College to facilitate the involvement of traditional authorities at the various local Government levels. The capacity of staff within the Chieftaincy institution would also be enhanced to effectively support it to make it one of the strongest pillars of Government institutions in the country. The Deputy Chief Director of the Upper East Regional Coordinating council, Vincent Adjato-Ntem, urged the traditional Authority in the Region to mobilise material and human resource to combat poverty, which was prevalent in the region.

He appealed to them to support teachers to bring up their children in schools, saying many children were now involved in watching videos and playing computer games to the detriment of their education. In a joint statement both the Senior Programme Manager of KAS and the Executive Director of CIKOD, Isaac Owusu-Mensah and Mr Bernard Guri respectively, said their organisations were determined to empower traditional authorities to participate actively in governance by ensuring that modern and traditional systems were blended in the country's governance. They explained that the present workshop would culminate in the holding of a national workshop in due course at the end of which a communiqu=E9 would be issued to Government.