Mr. Alex Opoku-Boamah, a Director at the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, on Friday observed has expressed concern that traditional leaders reduced to gracing occasions. He noted that during the pre-colonial times, chiefs took the front role in all aspects of local governance, such as ensuring law and order, mobilization of the people for socio-economic development and legislation. Mr. Opoku-Boamah made the observation at a ‘validation workshop’ on a study on the “role of traditional authorities in local governance”, at Elmina. He described the current situation as “most unfair”. The workshop, organized by the Ministry in collaboration with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), under its Support for Decentralization Reform, was to present findings and recommendations made during the study for the deliberation and inputs by chiefs, assembly members and queen mothers to enhance local governance. The Director, said although the colonialists realized the importance of the local authorities and “partnered” them in ruling the country, especially in the maintenance of law and order, chiefs “were pushed away in post-independence activities”. He said as a result, traditional rulers, who had hoped to have their powers restored, are now only “remembered” during inauguration of projects or other social functions, and expressed regret that, “people are ready to recognize chiefs as custodians of culture, but not [as partners] in local governance”. Mr. Opoku-Boamah, pointed out that culture was not just about drumming and dancing but the entirety of the people’s way of life and that chiefs must therefore be involved in various developmental processes. According to him, this had become imperative in view of the many “eminent professionals” such as development analysts and strategists, who are traditional rulers, and that, “it would be unfair to play down their roles”. He also expressed concern about the low representation of chiefs at the assemblies and said they were only “casually consulted” and said the situation was “an insult” to them. Mr Opoku-Boamah, said the study, was therefore initiated to help enhance traditional authority and local governance in general and expressed the hope that the participants would make the desired inputs to make the workshop worthwhile. The President of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, Nana Kwamina Ansah IV, was however of the view that the contemporary view of the institution as a debased traditional structure that has no meaning in the lives of the people, derived from negative attributes that the institution clothed itself with. He noted that the ascension of stools by unqualified and rich people, the practice of obnoxious traditional and customary norms like widowhood and prolonged funeral rites and the way some chiefs carried themselves in public, “make nonsense of the view that the chieftaincy institution is awesome, sacred and carried sanctity with it”. He noted that the 1992 constitution has charged traditional authorities with the responsibility that make them role players in government, and said there was an urgent need for a re-engineering of the institution to meet the aspirations of the times. “The redefinition of the functions of the chief in order to integrate him in the current national development process is key to the total and concrete participatory stand of the chief in local governance”, he stressed. In a speech read for him, the Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr. Sampson Kwaku Boafo, underscored the importance of traditional rulers, in relation to governance at the local administration level. Mr Boafo said it was in respect of this that strategies needed to be formulated to facilitate their integration into the governance system. The Minister therefore, expressed the hope that a research being conducted in the 10 regions of the country on the codification of customary law relating to lands and family will put an end to the various chieftaincy disputes that arise out of land issues. Mr Bernand Guri, of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD) whose organization carried out the study in collaboration with the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) of the University of Cape Coast, gave a summary of the report of the study. He said the study which was conducted in four districts each in the Central and Brong Ahafo Regions, indicated that many people are of the view that the chieftaincy institution was still relevant. He said it was also found out that there was little integration of traditional authority structures in the decentralization system at all levels, whereas the assemblies believe that they have created sufficient structures for participation of traditional authorities in planning at the sub-district levels. Mr Guri disclosed that issues like the establishment of a royal college and funding of traditional authorities from the central government needed further discussion and clarification by the traditional authorities and district assemblies. The Omanhene of Esikado, Nana Kobina Nketsiah, who presided over the meeting, also underscored the important role chiefs play in national development. He expressed concern that although the nation’s coat of arms portrayed this, the chieftaincy institution had been ignored, while the adopted form of governance and that initiated from other countries, had rather been “moved to the grassroots”. Source: GNA