Africa since time immemorial has been endowed with leadership at all levels of society. Just as Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory said: “The black man is capable of managing his own affairs”. Before the advent of colonialism, Africa had her own sons and daughters at the helm of affairs running the day to day administration of the continent from the family level to kingdoms or empires levels. Among many ethnic groups in Africa, leadership was vested in their kings or chiefs like the Zulus of South Africa and the Asantes of Ghana, on the other hand, others like the Gas in Ghana had their leadership originally vested in their fetish priests or priestesses who were also supposed to be the religious leaders of the land, in some jurisdictions in Africa however, family heads were customarily leaders. Traditionally, the leader provides protection and security for his people and sets good moral examples in life for them to emulate. Ghana’s Fourth Republican Constitution in article 277 defines a chief as: “a person, who, hailing from the appropriate family and lineage, has been validly nominated, elected or selected and enstooled, enskinned or installed as a chief or queenmother in accordance with the relevant customary law and usage”. Chiefs in Ghana as far back as the colonial era have been very instrumental in the administration of the country. Following the successful implementation of indirect rule in northern Nigeria by the then British Governor Lord Lugard; his Gold Coaster counterparts also employed the same tactics with much success. (Indirect rule is a system of governance which was first used by the British in administering British India: in which whatever they government wants to accomplished is passed through the chiefs to the people). Lugard was the British unifier of northern and southern Nigeria, and the first British governor to introduced indirect rule to British West Africa. Chiefs were seen by the colonial authorities as points of rallying the people and as a means of passing on information to the people. In ancient times Chiefs led their people in battles, perform the executive function of the day to day running of their chiefdoms, made laws and settle disputes among their people. Thus the functions of the three arms of government were enshrined in them. Chiefs are therefore the embodiment and custodians of our culture and the peace of the land and in addition, they are also agents of developments in their communities. Since the inception of the three tier system of governance (local government decentralization policy) on 1st July 1987 and the return of the country to constitutional rule on 7th January, 1992, the roles of Chiefs in Ghana in the democratization process and as agents of developments in their communities and the nation as a whole cannot be over emphasized. Article 276 of the 1992 constitution bars Chiefs from active partisan politics. It however, in Article 89 clauses 2(b) made provision for them to have their representative in the council of state; which is the advisory body to the President. The framers of the fourth republican constitution based on the history of the nation thought it wise to keep chiefs out of active party politics. This was because as far back as the early independence era there were attempts by certain chiefs in Ghana to play active roles in party politics which led to bit conflicts between the political leadership and some traditional rulers and their followers. If Chiefs who are the custodians of the land want to play active party politics they should be ready to abdicate their thrones as stipulated in article 176 clause 1 of the fourth republican constitution, so that they can be seen as fully fledged politicians and can be treated as such. In fact, traditional rulers must come to terms with the fact that it is not only through politics that you can serve your nation as a whole. Brighten the corner where you are; and the whole world will see your good works and applaud you for a job well done. As Martin Luther King Jr puts it: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangolo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespear wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great sweeper who did his job well”. In reality, Ghana needs a crop of leaders at all levels of society who will be committed to their vocations or callings and will never allow themselves to be disrupted by anybody or a group of persons in the performance of their duties. Indeed, he who is called to leadership must lead with all integrity, diligence, commitment and sacrifice, so that posterity will pause to say there was once a great leader who led his people well. Despite the fact that the 1992 constitution bars traditional rulers from taking part in active party politics; our Chiefs can still carve niches for themselves within the constitutional frame. Some of them have already embarked upon laudable initiatives at both the national and local levels. Worth mentioning are the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. Since ascending the golden stool, he has undertaken many numerous projects to bring about the socio-economic development to the benefits of all. He has set-up the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Educational Fund to help needy but brilliant students. The Foundation has since established the Otumfuo Teachers Awards Scheme to identify and award hard working and dedicated teachers in deprived areas in Ghana. In addition, he has made saw that all chieftaincy disputes within Asanteman were amicably resolved out of courts to promote peace and development. Another feather in his cap is his effort to resolve the centuries old dispute between the Asanteman Council and the Techiman Traditional Council. Furthermore, he has willing released several hectares of lands for numerous projects within the Kumasi Metropolitan Area; such as the Sokoban Wood Village and the site for the proposed modern Artisan village just to mention but a few. Indeed, Otumfuo is an outstanding traditional ruler in Africa who deserves a great applause by all and sundry. Moving towards the eastern corridor of Ghana is another illustrious traditional ruler of Ghana: Togbe Afede XIV, the paramount chief of the Asogli State in the Volta Region. Through his own initiatives and in a joint venture with Shenzhen Energy Group from China, the Suno-Asogli Power Project in Tema has added 200 megawatt of power to the national grade which has gone a long way to bring stability into our energy sector. Plans are under way for a future expansions; it is expected that at the end of the second phase it will produce an additional 360megawatts and later, supplementary power of 440 megawatts at the end of the third phase, to bring the total power generation to 1,000 megawatts. Togbe Afede XIV has brightened the corner where he is as a traditional ruler. And we say “Togbe akpe na wo”. From the Eastern Region is another dynamic Paramount Chief; the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panin, he and the Okyeman Traditional Council has been able to set-up the University College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies in Bunso in the Eastern Region. Its raison d'être is teaching, research and practice of sustainable exploitation and preservation of the environment. Osagyefo has also been very instrumental in championing environmental protection and preservation issues. He has since led a very powerful crusade aimed at raiding the Okye State of all illegal mining (gallamsay) activities which are destroying the environment especially water bodies. Although the war against gallamsay mining activities seems unending we are proud that we have such a traditional ruler who will not relent in his efforts to preserve the ecological and scenic beauty of our environment. Furthermore, the Okyenhene in February, 2005 launched the Okyeman Education Fund to help uplift education in the Okye State. In the Brong Ahafo Region; the Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyeman Badu II, President of the Dormaa Traditional Council has also embarked upon numerous projects to bring development to the door step of his people. Through his annual sons and daughters of Dormaa Easter Congress he is raising funds towards the execution of projects such as the creation of industries, the establishment of farms and agro-business ventures towards the development of the Dormaa State, to create employment in the area to prevent rural-urban migration for non-existent jobs by the youths. At the maiden Dormaa Easter Congress which was held in April 2012 at Wamanafo in the Dormaa East District, an amount of over GH¢400,000 was realized. Where there is a will, there is a way and I can see light at the end of the tunnel for the Dormaa State. The Techimanhene, Oseadeeyo Akumfi Ameyaw IV is another development oriented traditional leader. Nana Techimanhene has released several hectares of land for the construction of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Techiman Campus for Distance Education. Also he has released another parcel of land to the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority for the construction of an Airport in Techiman. In fact, there are several countless traditional rulers all over Ghana who have embarked upon major developmental projects to help improve the living conditions of their people who have not been mentioned here. However, these few examples that I have set here is to give praise where praise is due and to whet the appetite of other traditional rulers across Ghana in particular and Africa in general to emulate these outstanding positive examples of their counterparts. Despite these successes chalked by some chiefs, there are other factors that have bedeviled the chieftaincy institution in Ghana which has led to the dwindling influence of traditional rulers. The recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Ghana that Chiefs have no right to compel anybody to appear before them came as no surprise to me; since over the years the authority of traditional rulers has been dwindling right from independence. During the pre and the post independent era some traditional rulers in Ghana were dependent on the colonial administration and elected politicians respectively to exercise their authority. This made them lost their dignity in the sight of their own subjects who may belong to the other side of the political divide. Political parties globally have undermined the authorities of traditional rulers in an effort to canvas for votes. In Ghana most of the upheavals surrounding chieftaincies have political undertones. Fresh in our memories are the Dagbon and Bawku crises, just to mention but few, which are in a state of unrest due to interferences in chieftaincy affairs by politicians. These chieftaincy conflicts have brought retardation in developments and driven investors away from such areas. Our traditional rulers will do us a great service when they keep themselves out of partisan politics. As part of government’s efforts to bring good governance to the door step of people, new districts and constituencies are been created to correspond with the increasing population, however, this turn to wane the influence of traditional rulers as areas in their jurisdiction gain some form of autonomy from them and once an area attains a district or metropolitan status its traditional ruler may gradually with time be elevated to paramountcy. Another factor that counts for dwindling influence of traditional authorities in Ghana is the phenomenon of globalization, modernity and exotic religions which have made the chieftaincy institution to appear unattractive and to be seen in the lime light as a form of paganism. The lack of integrity on the part of some traditional rulers has brought the image of the chieftaincy institution into disrupt in Ghana, with some engaging themselves in multiple sales of land and other corrupt practices. Indeed, some chiefs have sold all their lands to the extent that their palaces are sited on quarter plots of lands with no landed space such as parks for durbar grounds. Others have nothing like a community or a royal cemetery for their people and themselves to bury the dead; what an irony? In certain situations, our traditional rulers have lost their high esteem in society because of the crippling effects of poverty. Poverty they say is madness. In fact, where paramount chiefs are seen to be either on foots, bicycles or motor bikes because they just can’t afford the comfort of a car as a means of transportation be little their status in society. Some traditional rulers are just not pulling their weight at all, they only appear on the seen during festivals to be carried high in palanquins, to receive donations from government and cooperate institutions after which they go into oblivion only to resurface in a year’s time for another festive occasion. They seem not to care about the wellbeing of their people and have nothing like a blue prints for their areas’ development. Such traditional rulers must wake up from their slumber as there is a lot to be done. In this era of cooperate entities any traditional ruler who is willing to embark on a development project for the benefit of his people is most likely to get assistance both government, foreign diplomatic missions in Ghana and cooperate organizations. In examining the role of traditional rulers in modern democracy in Ghana, I will like to make a strong appeal to the President and the parliament to re-examine the district assembly concept so that traditional rulers are given a part to play in the appointments of the District Chief Executives and the 30% government appointees to the district assemblies in their traditional areas and also in the planning and execution of development projects within their jurisdictions. If attention is given to the chieftaincy institution as a tool for socio-economic development at both the grass root and national levels in Africa, the hope of the triumph of democracy in Africa will become clearer and outstanding; we Africans are endowed with the capacity and the resources to set up and practice democracy which will give room to our traditional authorities to play their parts as agents of peace and development. Long live the Chieftaincy institution in Africa. Iddi Z. Yire is a social commentator) Box 2585, Tema. Email: iddi_yire@hotmail.com Mobile: +233-570898511.

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