Flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has reiterated his intention to empower chiefs to be part of governance if he is elected President in December 2024.
He says the 1992 Constitution and a ruling by the Supreme Court have weakened the powers of chiefs, something that needs to be re-looked for the chiefs to be part of governance.
According to John Mahama, many of the ongoing ills in society can be curbed by the chiefs who are residents of the communities where these things occur, rather than the government.
Speaking to the Regional House of Chiefs in Goaso at the commencement of his campaign tour to the Ahafo region, John Mahama said that the next NDC administration will dialogue with the chiefs to see how they will be involved in ameliorating societal ills like illegal mining also known as ‘galamsey’, illegal logging, indiscriminate littering amongst other things.
“Our 1992 Constitution forbids chiefs from doing politics and government cannot also interfere in their issues. Someone also went to the Supreme Court to injunct chiefs from summoning people to their palaces and the court held their opinion so the powers of the chiefs have all been dwindled. However, government alone cannot rule the nation.
“Government has done its bit on this ongoing galamsey for instance by chasing out the people with soldiers and all but did not materialise. Our forests are being deforested through illegal logging and galamsey.
“Government isn’t in the villages but our chiefs are there. Our communities are littered with plastics and all which government has not been able to curb but there are chiefs. So when we come, we’ll dialogue with them to see how we can empower the chiefs to be part of the governance,” John Mahama said Wednesday, September 18, 2024.
