The political advisor to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate has articulated Bawumia’s intention to strengthen the involvement of chieftaincy in governance and resource management.
Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s flagbearer, aspires to initiate a “golden age” in the relationship between the government and chieftaincy if he secures victory in the 2024 general elections, as stated by his political advisor, Kofi Tonto.
During an appearance on the Asaase Breakfast Show (ABS) on Tuesday, August 6, Tonto revealed that Bawumia shared his vision for improving state-chieftaincy relations in a meeting with Nene Sakite II, the Konor of the Manya Krobo traditional area.
His excellency took the time to explain his vision when it comes to what he terms as the golden age of relationship between the state and the chieftaincy tradition and then the state and then the faith-based organizations.
He (Bawumia) spoke about the relevance of our chieftaincy in our governance system and cited an example that there are a lot of petty cases that go to the courts; these are cases that can easily be resolved by the chiefs. So why not give them the powers to be able to support in that regard?
One of the policies we’ve been talking about is the chiefs playing a critical role in how we use our natural resources and how we allocate the lands. So when you read the section on our minerals and mining, we talk about the chiefs playing a role in the mining committee that we’ll set up in the various districts.
He then spoke about resourcing chieftaincies; for example, the queen mothers, the sub-chiefs, and the divisional chiefs; we need to give them a bit of resource to be able to give us more impact than they are already doing.
The chiefs took it in great strides because it’s a good thing.We need to bring our chiefs closer and find ways where they can contribute more to our nation-building exercise.
