President John Evans Atta Mills at the weekend commended Gas for celebrating this year's annual homowo festival, in an atmosphere of peace and harmony. " The best we can do as a people is to resolve our differences as quickly as possible, forget and forgive one another by making peace with each other," he stressed.
President Mills gave the commendation in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Alex Asum-Ahensah, Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs, during the commemoration of the festival, by the chiefs and people of Amasaman in the Ga West Municipal Assembly of the Greater Accra Region. He said the chiefs and people had played integral role in the development of the country, especially the sustainability of the prevailing peace.
"While politicians have come and gone sometimes prematurely, our chieftaincy institution has held on stoically, remaining perhaps the one strong link between the past, the present and the future." President Mills noted that the consolidation of democracy in Ghana does not abase the importance of chieftaincy. "Indeed today, more than ever, the need for chiefs to get on board in support of government to move our country forward especially in its economic development has become necessary.
What challenges lay ahead is the economic welfare of the people of the country, and chiefs have very crucial roles in this respect." President Mills said the power and strength of any chief was not to fight and win wars, but to initiate, execute and provide development projects and programmes to his people and community. He said traditional leaders could only succeed in providing development in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. "Most communities are fast developing due to the absence of protracted chieftaincy disputes.
International agencies, willing to support communities in their developmental efforts are driven away by. protracted litigations in respect of land and chieftaincy disputes," he said. President Mills said Chapter 22 of the 1992 Constitution and the chieftaincy Act, 2008 (Act 759) indicated the approved processes of resolving chieftaincy disputes. "I wish to urge all our chiefs to study these documents and apply them in resolving disputes instead of resorting to unacceptable and harmful processes."
The President said his administration in collaboration with the National House of Chiefs and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation is compiling a Register of Succession to various stools and skins. The German Agency for Technical Co-operation is also supporting the chieftaincy institution to ascertain the country's customary and family laws.
President Mills observed that chieftaincy conflicts had caused the country a fortune at the expense of development and called on the chiefs to co-operate with the officials in charge of the exercise, to facilitate accurate information on the institution. Nii Ayibontey II, Gbese Mantse, who chaired the function, called on chiefs to guard against disputes by forging unity of purpose. Nii Armah Tackie, Amasaman Municipal Chief Executive, appealed to the chiefs and people to make educational pursuit a priority.
<<Print>>