One of the uniqueness of our culture is the respect for our traditional rulers who, before the western system of government was introduced, set rules and regulations that governed their people.
Modernisation is, however, gradually eroding this time-tested culture, paving the way for subjects to defy their chiefs with impunity.
One of such behaviours has just happened at Dumasua in the Sunyani West District of the Brong-Ahafo Region, where the residents, mainly women and children, have dumped garbage collected from their various homes in front of the chief’s private residence.
The reason for the Stone Age behaviour is that the town has no refuse dump, and the Chief, Nana Osei Nketiah, is not making any efforts to get them one.
Some of the women involved in the act told The Chronicle that a 30 year old refuse dump in town was cleared by the Member of Parliament for the area, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, after persistent appeals, because of the bad odour emanating from it.
According to the women, after the evacuation of the refuse, the Chief allocated a temporary dump site for them, only for a private developer to harass them because the land belongs to him.
The said developer also went further to invoke curses on them, using the local gods, but all complaints to the local assembly and the chief to get them a new place to dump refuse have not received any favourable response.
This has resulted in the indiscriminate dumping of refuse, which is also creating a health problem for the community.
The women accused the chiefs and elders of the town of selling all available lands to private developers without thinking about where refuse must be dumped.
The women also alleged that their chief is resident in the United States of America, and, therefore, does not feel the pain they are going through when it comes to waste disposal.
The women further told The Chronicle that they got hint that their chief had returned home from the US, and decided to dump the refuse in front of his house the following morning, just to tell him the difficulty they are going through.
When contacted, Nana Osei Nketiah described the action of the women as disrespectful, because he had personally contacted the Sunyani West District Assembly to request for a refuse container, but they had refused to do so.
According to him, he had even contracted a private person to fabricate a new container for him, which would soon be made available.
He was, therefore, shocked that the women would go to the extent of dumping refuse in front of his house.
According to the Chief, he reported the conduct of the women to the police, but when the latter went to the town to effect their arrest, the people shielded them.
An aspiring Assembly Member of the town, Mr. Felix Boahen, told The Chronicle that the police, out of frustration, arrested a man whose name was mentioned only as “Corner” for preventing the arrest of the women.
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