Bawumia: My government will give more power back to the chiefs

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has stated that he plans to revise the chieftaincy act in order to give chiefs the authority to enforce discipline more effectively. He mentioned that the insufficient powers of chiefs to summon individuals to the palace have led to a lack of discipline in many societies.

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He stated that this plan would allow tribal leaders to quickly settle conflicts within their communities, thereby decreasing the number of pending cases in the legal system.

In addition, Dr. Bawumia presented plans to offer fair wages to paramount chiefs, divisional chiefs, and queen mothers, guaranteeing that they have sufficient resources to fulfill their duties.

“You can’t give them responsibility without resources. So the recommendation that has come which we put in the manifesto is to make sure that we pay living wages to the chieftaincy institution. And by this, I mean, the paramount chief is 1000 cedis a month. Even to attend the meeting, it might not be enough for petrol.”

“There’s no payment for the queen mothers. There is no payment for the divisional chiefs and so we need to pay living allowances to the paramount chiefs, to the divisional chiefs and also to the queen mothers,” he said.

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“There is no discipline and I don’t know how it has increasingly happened but we have to go back and make amends. So I am proposing an amendment of section 63D of the chieftaincy act and this is what my manifesto committee recommends, that we amend section 63D of the chieftaincy act and give more power back to the chiefs,” he stated.

“So we need to re-empower the chiefs, amend this section 63D which will be a priority of mine and then to be able to get the chieftaincy institution to really play its proper role, financially the institution needs to be resourced.”