A Political Science Lecturer of the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has raised concerns over traditional authorities in the country endorsing presidential candidates for Election 2020.
He explained that traditional authorities who endorse such candidates lose their relevance with the exit of their preferred political party from power and aside popular traditional authorities, endorsement of candidates by other chiefs had been on the rise.
“What may not be easily known to many of the chiefs who flout the constitutional injunction is, they commit political suicide by eroding their own respect, role as agents of unity, lose their role as countervailing forces and credible mediators in political impasse and conflict.
“They also lose their convening powers to summon their citizens for communal work, lose their role as agents of growth and development, as no government will work with chiefs who are known as political opponents because the recent increased open participation of chiefs in partisan politics, in gross disregard of the constitutional injunction that bars them from doing so, is worrying,” Prof Gyampo lamented.
He stressed that the institution of chieftaincy was still relevant, particularly in rural hinterlands where tentacles of modern day governance does not fully cover while other chiefs in towns and cities had maintained a certain role had brought respect, growth and development to their people.
“If chiefs are still relevant today, then they must be politically neutral, be measured in their partisan tones when politicians call on them during 2020 electioneering campaign and other public fora, fortunately, the framers of the 1992 Constitution were aware of the plight of our chiefs, decided to put in place provisions in the constitution, to restore their respect and protect their sanctity as agents of unity, development and restraint.
“They must be called to order, to respect what the constitution says against their quest to engage in partisan politics which should be a matter of concern to those of us who are concerned with the country’s peace as we seek to build core of unbiased citizenry, who will wield certain moderating influences, intervening to help resolve conflicts, when our nation threatens to implode, because of partisan politics,” Prof. Gyampo decried. -Starr FM
