The President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, Nene Sackite II, has urged chiefs to forge ahead towards building a stronger chieftaincy institution rather than one that builds around individual personalities and interests.
He said due to some individual interests, the chieftaincy institution has come under siege and added that it was necessary to do away with such parochial interest to build a stronger chieftaincy institution over and above individual personalities.
“The chieftaincy institution is under siege and unless we respond positively and timely to the phenomenon, we shall soon be confronted with situations where some of our subjects will take laws into their own hands and cause embarrassment to the aged old institution,” he said.
Nene Sakite made these known during the end- of -year annual general meeting organised by the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs last Monday.
The meeting was to enable the chiefs reflect and take stock of previous activities and suggest new strategies for future successes.
He noted that chieftaincy institution was regulated by laws and stated that the time has come for chiefs to take a serious look at the Chieftaincy Act to gain a deeper understanding of the operations of the chieftaincy institution.
“It will help to avail themselves of the penalties spelt out for those who want to take the laws into their own hands and bring the Chieftaincy institution into disrepute,” he asserted.
He urged the chiefs to imbibe rather than reject the knowledge emanating from the chieftaincy institution to ensure that sanctity and reputation of the institution was jealously guided.
Speaking on the ensuring development of the country, he said the country was steadily being drifted towards polarisation along party lines which he said was not healthy for the development of the country towards building cohesion or unity.
Nene Sackite indicated that even though the country was known for its liberal democratic status, it was however suffering from growing culture of detachment from democratic values, norms and behaviours associated to polarisation of politics.
“The country has witnessed several incidents of violence and use of intemperate language which has been normalised as part of its political landscape. Citizens interaction with each other and their ways of life are marred by political ideologies and actions.”
For his part, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Seth Acheampong, stated that the chiefs were traditional allies of government in development, and pledged his commitment to work with them to ensure development of the region.
He thanked them for their enormous support and cooperation since he became minister of the region and urged them to continue to support him to make the region and country great and strong.
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA
