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The greatest event to take place at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi since the famed Black Stars of Ghana annihilated the Pharaohs of Egypt 6-1 on Tuesday, October 15, 2013, to book a place in the 32-team World Cup to be staged in Brazil next month, will shake the very foundation of the Ashanti Regional capital on Sunday, May 11, 2014. What will vibrate with joy, in the arena specifically constructed to aid the progress of sports in this land of our birth on Sunday, will show-case the very best in this nation�s tradition. Drum beats and appellations will celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the enthronement of Barimah Kwaku Duah as Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, certainly, one of the most celebrated agents of change this nation has ever produced. In July 1978, when the palace coup of Lt-Gen. Frederick William Kwasi Akuffo dislodged then General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Head of State and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, Mr. Kwame Gyawu-Kyem, who was ending his innings as Editor of the Ghanaian Times, wrote a one-paragraph editorial. �When a man has done his very best,� Mr. Gyawu-Kyem asserted, �the angels above cannot do anymore.� Otumfuo Oesi Tutu II has paid more than his dues to Asanteman and Mother Ghana. For the 15 years he has occupied the Golden Stool, the Asantehene has been an instrument of positive change. He has infected every aspect of the Ghanaian society with his tact and diplomacy. Sunday�s durbar at the Baba Yara Stadium is intended to celebrate him, and to encourage him to do more for the people of Asanteman, and Ghana as a whole. It is not for nothing that his people fondly remember him as King Solomon. The durbar will be one of those grand occasions when the sacred Golden Stool would be on display. On Sunday, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II will ride majestically in a palanquin to the durbar grounds, escorted by horn blowers and various drum beats extolling the virtue in the King, who undoubtedly, is the most celebrated traditional ruler of our time. I am not an Ashanti. But, by courtesy of the Asantehene, my very good friend Lawyer Kofi Dua-Adonteng and I joined the royal entourage and felt the pomp and aura of Asantehene�s procession when Otumfuo Osei Tutut II paid his maiden visit to Worawora in the Volta Region in 2002. On Sunday, my friend and I are hoping to greet the King when he sits in state to receive homage from people all over the country and beyond. Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has impacted on the life of many people generally, and the country at large, in many ways. But, before I come to analyse his many contributions to nation-building, it is appropriate to introduce the Asantehene in proper context. Born on May 6, 1950, Barima Kwaku Dua is the youngest of five children delivered by Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II, Queenmother of Ashanti. His father, Nana Kwame Boakye Dankwa, from Kontinkyire in Ashanti, was Brehyia (Duke) of Ashanti. He died in 2002 in Kumasi, barely three years after his son had ascended the throne. Nana Boakye Dankwa had children from other marriages. Some of Asantehene�s siblings are Yaw Boateng, currently domiciled in Canada, Kwaku Duah (USA), and Nana Kwasi Agyeman Prempeh. At birth, the Asantehene was named after his paternal grandfather in the true tradition of Akan practice. Barimah Kwaku Duah was one of seven descendants of the Golden Stool who were eligible to ascend the throne when it became vacant at the time Otumfuo Opoku Ware II visited his ancestors. On his enthronement, Nana Kwaku Duah chose the stool name Osei Tutu II, after his great grand uncle who founded the Ashanti Kingdom in 1701, and held it together until his death in 1717. Osei Tutu I was the sixth king in Ashanti history. The Asantehene is also the titular ruler of Kumasi, and automatically Life Patron of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club. Sunday�s programme is the climax of three months of celebration, under the theme �Rekindling the Spirit of the Creativity, Innovation and Enterprise through Traditional Leadership.�The programme was outlined officially by the Chairman of the Planning Committee, Dr. Baffour Osei Hyiaman Bretuo VI, Mmawerehene of Kumasi. The programme began with the celebration on February 16 of Akwasidae and the sod cutting for the construction of a proposed Osei Tutu II University College at the site of the Kumasi Brewery Limited at Asokwa in Kumasi. There was an international conference on the �The Role of Science and Challenges of Creativity, Innovation and Enterprise Building.� There were sacred rites at the Breman Royal Mausoleum, and an ongoing photo exhibition at the Manhyia Palace Gardens and Palace Museum from April 16 to May 14. There was an Akwasidae to mourn ancestors of the stool, at which all participants wore the traditional Asante mourning cloth �Kuntunkuni-, after which an inter-denominational church service was organised at Manhyia on April 2. On May 6, well-wishers presented gifts to the Asantehene to mark his 64th Birthday. Otumfuo Oseit Tutu II has impacted positively on the lives of Ghanaians in many ways. He has been an excellent counselor to politicians and traditional leaders. From the era of ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, through John Agyekum Kufuor, John Evans Atta Mills to John Dramani Mahama, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has aided the resolution of several sticky moments. The story is told that when former President Kufuor was in power, the government suspected that former head of state Jerry Rawlings was plotting to overthrow the administration. Mr. Rawlings also complained that the Kufuor government was out to humiliate him and his wife. The Asantehene called for a truce between the suspicious parties, and succeeded in getting both sides to abandon the suspicion of each other. Apparently, Mr. Rawlings was of the opinion that the Kufuor regime had taken a path of deliberately ridiculing his household, as well as the administration he led. Through Otumfuo�s intervention, peace was brokered, and a very sticky security risk aborted. It is this same mediation role that apparently was misunderstood by many Ghanaians who thought Manhyia was patronising the Mahama regime. The palace was largely instrumental in getting the two sides to the Dagbon dispute to lower their guards. Otumfuo Osei Tutu II heads the Committee of Eminent Chiefs, which is still brokering peace in Dagbon. The Asantehene�s influence on national and traditional development could be felt in the fields of education, health, poverty- reduction, as well as wooing investors into the country. One of Otumfuo�s immediate acts on ascending to the Golden Stool was to initiative moves to get many land disputes in court in Ashanti to be resolved in the traditional setting. The Otumfuo Education Fund, launched in November 1999, has awarded nearly 9,000 scholarships to brilliant but needy students to further their education. According to Nana Brefo Boateng, Executive Secretary of the Otumfuo Education Fund, eight students had benefitted from grants for graduate and post studies in the United States. The Fund has provided educational materials and infrastructure to 150 schools in the country, including dormitories, computers, library books, desks, school uniforms, and water tanks. Otumfuo�s development agenda has been appreciated by many local and international institutions and other bodies which have honoured the ruler of Ashanti. Last December, the University of Professional Studies in Accra, his alma mater, awarded Otumfuo Osei Tutu II with an honorary doctorate degree. Honours have also been conferred on him by the University of Ghana, Legon, the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, where he is the Chancellor, and University of Maryland in the United States among others. The Association of Commonwealth Universities honoured him in April 2000, while the University of Metropolitan University in London, and Glasgow University in Scotland recognised him with honours of their own. In health, Otumfuo has set up the Serwaa Ampem AIDS Foundation for Children. The SAAFC is managed by Otumfuo�s wife, Lady Julia. The occupant of the Golden Stool has also provided funding for the reduction of maternal mortality, various eye diseases, and immunisation against the six child killer diseases. He has promoted the Asanteman Economic Revitalisation Plan, to promote investments and provide local industries with funds to fight abject poverty. The Asantehene has also initiated a project promoting partnership with traditional authorities, under which local authorities could access funding from the World Bank to deliver social and economic projects to improve the capacity building of the various traditional areas in the country.Otumfuo has changed the concept of chieftaincy in the country for the better. When his subjects fondly refer to him as King Solomon, it tells everything about how grateful they are for the way he has touched their lives during the 15 years of his eventful reign.