The Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has questioned the exclusion of chiefs from politics, arguing that reforms to Ghana’s system of government are necessary to allow traditional leaders to serve in the legislature.
“It is incorrect for our current Constitution to state that chiefs should not be involved in active politics,” he said. Politics is about development, and chiefs guide communities towards development. Who else can handle politics if we believe they are incapable of doing so?
He made this statement when paying Nyelinbulgu-Naa Yakubu Andani Dasana, Regent of Bimbilla, a courtesy call at the Gmantambo Palace in Bimbilla.
He came there to thank the Regent for his efforts to keep the peace and to ask for support for governance on the occasion of Parliament’s 30th anniversary of democratic rule.
“Our traditional leaders are our true leaders—they are not politicians,” Mr. Bagbin declared, citing them as the cornerstone of the nation’s democracy.
He said that if elders hadn’t been included in the parliaments of nations like Senegal and Botswana, those regimes would have fallen.
Given that traditional leaders in Ghana were respected and recognised for their discipline, he stated that this should be imitated in order to maintain decorum in the legislature and in administration.
