The 2024 flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has pledged that chiefs will play important roles in his administration when he becomes President.
He underscored the roles and contributions of traditional authorities to nation-building since Ghana’s independence noting that their efforts cannot be underestimated.
He however expressed his disappointment in the failure of governments to involve the traditional authorities in decision making.
“Nananom, I want to bring the chieftaincy institution closer to government. I think Ghana has since independence made a big mistake that we have kept the chiefs away from government and I think we have lost a big big ally in the governance and I think it is time to draw them closer to government,” he said.
According to the Vice President, amending section 63 of the Chieftaincy Act will allow chiefs to handle cases within their powers which will help reduce the the number of cases which are sent to court.
“And so I want us to amend section 63 of the Chieftaincy Act so that the chiefs have powers to help the government. There are many cases that can be resolved at your palaces that don’t have to come to court to clock the court system but they end up in court and we can do a lot in there,” he said
Dr. Bawumia made the pronouncement on Monday, August 26, 2024, at the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Darkuman during his tour of Ablekuma North constituency as part of his day tour of the Greater Accra Region.
The tour covered both Ablekuma North and West Constituencies where he visited places such as the Odorkor Main Station, Mallam Market, Kokompe, Dansoman, and its environs.
To ensure the effectiveness of Chiefs’ roles in his government, Dr. Bawumia, reiterated his suggestion that chiefs should be paid monthly allowances.
This allowance will cover Paramount Chiefs, Divisional Chiefs, and Queen Mother’s.
The NPP’s 2024 Presidential Candidate added that he will also codify and digitalize the Chieftaincy Institution to help end the litigation canker facing their growth.
“We also want to codify the lines of succession to its stool because there is too much confusion and so a lot of times people who are not entitled want to become chiefs. So we will work with the Judicial Council of the House of Chiefs so that the lines of succession in all the stools in Ghana would be codified and digitalized and then everyone knows that these the lines of succession so that we don’t have confusion in that regards,” Dr. Bawumia assured.
