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Chieftaincy is a big thing in our part of the world; it is noble and sacred. To say we as Africans and Ghanaians have a huge reverence for it is to state the obvious.
The average chief in Ghana commands great respect, the type that ordinarily would not be accorded him in his private life.
Once you are made a chief, your social class changes and you must be respected and treated as such, irrespective of your age and previous social standing. That is the level of prestige and dignity surrounding the institution.
Same was the level of political power and authority chiefs wielded; it was that big but the bitter truth is that the emergence of other forms of leadership and governance like democracy came to limit their powers, confining them to a relatively smaller area of authority mainly in the realm of traditional leadership.
That notwithstanding, they still play some key roles in running our society as guaranteed in our Constitution. Among several others roles, they are the keepers of our rich and gorgeous tradition and culture which identify us as a people.
That aside, many are the chiefs who have gone the extra mile to redefine their customary role and given it an even more attractive contemporary flavor. The more progressive ones have moved beyond being ceremonial figures with occasional honour and pleasure of palanquin ride and have turned change makers, impacting the very lives of their people.
While it is my wish, and of many other well-meaning Ghanaians that this pleasant appeal about the institution is sustained, it is regrettable to say that our actions and inactions are instead stripping the institution of this reverence and giving it a bad name.
More explicitly put, we are tainting the name of the institution and virtually dragging it into the mud in a manner that should be a source of heartache to culture enthusiasts like me. How many of us will be bold enough to contest the claim that chieftaincy has almost become synonymous with dispute, antagonism and hostility?
There are raging chieftaincy disputes all over the country that have turned our traditional areas into hot conflict zones, and given our security agencies tough time; I dare say we have even lost count of these because hardly does a week pass without reports of aggression over the accession to one skin or stool.
We all saw the Abudus and Andanis of Dagbon take on each other in a recurrent strife with the resultant loss of lives and destruction of properties.
The Ga state has had to literally come to a standstill due to the rumpus over succession. The Kumawu, Tuobodom, Kade, Nungua, Akyem Swedru, Yeji, Wa, Nadowli, Suhyen, Abease, Senchi, Buipe, Nakpanduri, Brekum, and Akyem Kotoku areas all took turn to give Ghanaians needless headache over one form of chieftaincy dispute or the other. The violence that rocked Afloa, Bunkpurugu, Bimbilla etc. and attendant fatalities left many with nagging questions if chieftaincy is doing us more harm than good in its current form and practice.
Just a couple of days ago, Yilo Krobo took over the media space with negative, screaming and disgraceful headlines and for several days, the Akuse Police Command had to keep watch over lives and properties. We are also reading about how two chiefs have sprung up each claiming legitimacy to the Bolga skin and the title of Bolga Naba as captured in the Monday May 11, 2015 edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper. The list can go on and on and on from region to region and from one traditional area to another. How much we spend each time to maintain law and order in this conflict zones hardly come into the equation and we bother very little to quantify it. How sad !!!
Our courts are choking with these litigations that have long proven retrogressive and needless and yet very little is being learnt from that, otherwise why would the people of Yilo Krobo plunge their hitherto peaceful Sra community and the Somanya township into this unnecessary tension and draw dagger over the selection of a successor to the late paramount Chief, Kpetekple Dautey Ologo despite the fact that useful lessons are all over the street in neighbouring Manya Krobo Traditional Area whose people regrettably went down a similar lane just some few year ago?
The demise of the legendary Krobo King, Oklemekuku Azu Mate-Kole in 1990 set the Manya Krobo State on a road of litigation such that for eight years, the stool remained vacant; this came with its own challenges though the dispute was less violent. But admittedly, that was a sad point in history that every well-meaning Krobo regretted, not when seventeen (17) years after the installation of a successor, the reigning Konor, the smoke of that dispute is still evidently hanging in the air and suffocating us. Believe it or not, there are visible scars that are looking us in the face to remind us of a painful past and to teach us that never again must we toe that lane.
It would be expected that close as our Yilo brothers are, and falling into the same ethnic bracket with us, they would pick useful lessons and guard their beard with water having seen ours burn with disastrous consequences. But here we are with a worse form of the dispute shamefully and shockingly laced with poisonous bitterness and aggression. Brothers have turned sworn enemies and what used to be a calm neighborhood full of communal spirit and fellow feeling turned into a security zone under armed Police guard and protection because the people (royals?) whose right it is to rule the area disagree over who the next person is to ascend the throne.
The Nuer and Akrobetto gates are at each other’s throat, claiming the right to install a successor following the passing of the Konor, Nene Ologo, which logically should close a chapter in the history of the reign of the Ologo gate. While the Nuers are claiming lineage to the stool and insisting it is their turn, the Akrobetos are wild with their argument that the Nuers are not an integral part of the house and so cannot claim ancestry to the stool. What is more? There is a new twist to their argument to the effect that the choice made by the Nuers, who has since been installed, has no direct and proven paternal link to the stool.
The truth is and can only be one. Which of these two gates is being greedy? Are the Nuers usurping a role and position that is not theirs and thus pointlessly visiting anarchy on the people of Yilo Krobo or the Akrobetos are dishonorably and jealously denying the former what is rightfully theirs?
The truth should long have been established (if already not known) and strictly gone by, under the direction of the state Elders and/or the Traditional Council (made of the Divisional Chiefs, Asafoatseme, Queenmothers and other such relevant players), but what do we see, a divided house with entrenched positions influenced partly by fleeting self-interest. Why won’t we give the noble institution a bad name and drag it into the gutters with this retrogressive attitude?
Judging from precedents across the country, this divide, this enmity and this broken cord will continue to live with these families and the Yilo state for a long time to come and may even be inherited by upcoming generations.
Isn’t it sad that the living cannot even find a solution to their problems (simple disagreement) and would want to visit their thoughtlessness on the dead who should be taking their deserved rest within the confines of their narrow beds? If we can’t be tolerant and thoughtful enough to sit at the table as kith and kin to resolve our disagreement, why should we go hounding the dead (Nene Ologo) from his sleep far away in the land of our ancestors? If the rumoured exhumation of the remains of the late paramount chief was a cooked story to muddy the waters, then that’s most unfortunate but if indeed it’s true that the tomb was desecrated and the remains “stolen”, then that is even worst and an abomination that should not be taken lightly.
Seriously, we cannot continue moving in this direction and the earlier this cancerous cell in our society is attended to with all the available prescriptions, the better for us as a people. That is why I find commendable ongoing efforts by the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture to fashion out the modalities for the drafting and implementation of succession plan for the various stools and skins. It’s worthy course and must be embraced by all stakeholders to make it a reality soonest.
Our religious groups like the Christian Council and Local Council of Churches and also the local churches must step out of their traditional role of preaching pure gospel and actively lead the way in negotiations and the use of other alternative dispute resolution methods in situations like this. Yes, the court is there for litigation and we each have the right to initiate any action we deem fit but the road must not always lead there not when it has proven less effective in ensuring lasting peace.
Let's also have prominent sons of the areas rising to the occasion and using their respected position and influence to drive dialogue. For now I pray our Yilo Krobo brothers will have a rethink and revert to a less militant approach to resolving the impasse, at least for the sake of the state. Let the well-meaning Krobo and/or discerning reader make meaning of this piece.
SOURCE: Graphic.com.gh
The writer is a journalist and a culture enthusiast. He can be contacted by email via klonobi2007@gmail.com