The Abusahene of the Nkoranza Traditional Area, in the Bono East Region, Nana Owusu Pinkra II, has urged traditional rulers to jealously guard their authority in order to salvage the country from corruption and mismanagement that have pervaded the moral fabric of the Ghanaian society.
According to him, politicians do not have the political will to rid the country of bribery and corruption because any attempt to instill discipline in the system would be met with the usual slogan “we would not vote for you again”
Nana Pinkra said this on behalf of colleagues at the graduation of 40 traditional rulers, from the regional and National House of Chiefs and their queen mother’s at the Otumfour Centre for Traditional Leadership, (OCTL) at the University of Professional Studies in Accra, on Friday.
This brings to 350 the number of traditional rulers and their staff who have received tuition at the institute since its inception two-years ago.
The participants were taken through courses including strategic planning, business communication; Decentralisation, traditional authority and local governance, people management and leadership, ethics of chieftaincy, judicial ethics, issues of judicial and leadership gender and chieftancy and chiefs as partners of development.
According to him “any nation or community that was too scared to confront the evil that threatens its existence must not be allowed to live”.
Nana Pinkra denounced the activities of some chiefs who facilitate corruption and mismanagement through the wanton selling of land sometimes one plot to several buyers thus creating confusion in their communities.
“It was to correct these ills that we have been taken through this programme to equip ourselves with the rudiments of the modern chieftancy institution in order to chart a new way of leading the people” he said.
He urged government to consider chiefs and queens as genuine partners in its quest for nation building and not as materials for ministerial visit, sod cutting and palaces for campaign stop shops.
“Chiefs and queens need to be consulted in development plans and in project awards as well as be given supervisory roles during the execution of such development projects in order to curb contractor absenteeism.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Abednego Amartey, in a speech read on his behalf, commended Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the king of the Asante Kingdom for establishing the institute which he explained would breath a new life into the chieftancy institution.
He charged the participants to implement the skills and knowledge acquired in order to attract other traditional rulers to the institute.
By Lawrence Vomafa-Akpalu
