A former consultant to the National House of Chiefs and
Development Planner, Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, has called on the new chieftaincy
and political leadership to adopt a compelling vision to creatively utilize
chieftaincy institution as Ghana’s home-grown vehicle for community
development.
He says without such an initiative to move chieftaincy
from being spectators to active players in development, the constitutional
guarantee of chieftaincy would not be sufficient to consolidate chieftaincy and
its relevance to Ghana’s development.
“Community development is currently at a crossroads and
chieftaincy is potentially the next wave for exploring a home-grown communal
development model,” said Mr. Azongo.
He noted that the chieftaincy Development challenge is
not about the quest for development-oriented Chiefs, but how to give a
strategic development orientation to the entire institution of chieftaincy in
community development intermediation.
He has in the process called on the leadership of Chieftaincy
from both the Houses of Chiefs and the Chieftaincy Ministry to shift focus from
disputes, succession and welfare issues to the fundamental issue of charting a
home-grown development expression to the institution as a mass-economic
development vehicle.
He says the challenge confronting the Chieftaincy
institution and the nation is not so much of chieftaincy disputes, welfare and
succession issues as is currently the
pre-occupation of chieftaincy and political leadership, but charting a definite role for traditional
leadership in the current national development process.
The Agbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV, who
was recently elected as the new President of the National House of Chiefs, is seeking
to restore the reverence associated with the chieftaincy institution.
President-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, has also reiterated his
interest to involve the chieftaincy institution in his
administration’s governance of the country.
Mr. Azongo’s new paper titled “The Chieftaincy
Manifesto, Agenda for Development”, is written to awaken chieftaincy and political
leadership consciousness on the development importance of chieftaincy and
planning and policy related recommendations required to re-organize the
institution of chieftaincy along a development path.
“The Chieftaincy Manifesto provides a synoptic view of
various development models, and a scholarly verdict of these models in the
African development landscape from which lessons could be shopped to shape the
chieftaincy development enterprise in Ghana and Africa,” he said.
He has also charged the public to refrain from questioning
the relevance of the Chieftaincy institution in modern times, but rather concentrate
on how to make the institution more relevant to socio-economic development.
“There is no fixed world to be uncovered through
modernity but a search for a workable system of development that meets the
needs of our people and the unborn generation, and not what other jurisdiction
defines as modernity for Africa,” he observed. “The fact that chieftaincy is
time-tested and community-based means that it is better placed to sustain
community development if the institution is given the requisite development
orientation”.
To question the relevance of chieftaincy is tantamount
to questioning the relevance of our culture, identity and shared-values as a
people, noted the development planner.
He has recommended a Multi-Frontal
leadership approach, a division of responsibilities, where the President of the
Houses of Chiefs focuses predominantly on charting a development cause for the
institution, whilst the Vice-Presidency settles on the traditional role of
welfare, disputes and succession.
The
same template, he admonished, could be rolled out for the Ministry of
Chieftaincy to prioritize policy and planning actions for the development of
the chieftaincy institution.
Mr.
Azongo has also proposed the adoption of the 1st Chieftaincy
Development Decade (2017-2027) underpinned by its own unique development theme
to determine the direction of leadership towards the common development goal.
According
to him, the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs should be cast as
the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Development to align with the new development
trajectory.
This is
to position the institution on a common leadership pedestal to redefine
commitment towards harnessing the institutional potential of chieftaincy for a
common national development goal.
By Kofi Adu Domfeh
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