The Omanhene of Akyem Bosome Traditional Area, Okotwaasuo Kantamanto Oworaen Agyekum III has revealed that the chieftaincy institution in the country is not fully liberated to function as it ought to.

According to him, some political actors continue to interfere in the operations of traditional authorities.

He observed that the politicians plant discord among chiefs in order to infiltrate the institution due to the power they have.

“Recently, there is political interference. Politicians realising the attraction and the influence of chieftaincy seek to infiltrate various chieftaincy institutions in order to be able to associate with them.

“They inject a lot of discord into the institution. So basically, politicians are trying to capture these institutions,” he said.

Okotwaasuo Kantamanto Oworaen Agyekum III made his observation known when he was contributing to the discussion on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday.

The Show sought to analyse the change that has happened to the chieftaincy institution and understand if it is still relevant in contemporary times.

While admitting that the colonial times had a significant effect on the institution, the Akyem Bosome Omanhene was firm in his position that the traditional leaders are relevant today.

According to him, many rural communities lack the presence of administrative governance, thus, traditional authorities in such areas administer the role.

“There are about 4600 settlements in Ghana today, out of them, the central government has a presence in only about 12,000. For the rest, the balance in those communities is governed in one form or the other by chiefs.

“Chiefs do a lot of work, but most of the time, it is under the radar, it is not glamorous so people do not necessarily see the contributions that chiefs make. But chiefs make considerable contributions,” he said.