Serve every government in power - Nene Animle

The paramount Chief of the Osudoku Traditional Area in the Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region, Nene Aadegbor Ngmongmowuyaa Kwesi Animle VI, has advised chiefs in the Osudoku Traditional Area to offer dedicated service to every government that assumes power in the country and not to discriminate against any government.

He said because governments were elected to promote the development of the country, it would be a disservice to the people of the traditional area if chiefs were choosy about which government to support.

Nene Animle said the Chieftaincy Act did not permit chiefs and, for that matter traditional rulers, to meddle in politics.

Therefore, he said, it was pertinent that traditional rulers in Shai-Osudoku were not seen to be participating actively in partisan politics.

“There should be a clear distinction between being a traditional ruler and a politician. We are chiefs and should not fuse our traditional roles with that of politics because when we do that we would be deviating from our core mandate as chiefs and that will not augur well for us,” he said.

He said it was also time chiefs stopped betraying one another and added that “when we do that we would not move our traditional area forward in terms of development, and posterity will hold us accountable.”

Nene Animle made these assertions at a ceremony held at Osuwem to introduce nine new chiefs in the traditional area.

The ceremony was well attended by people from all the divisions in the traditional area. Of the nine chiefs, six are newly installed, two confirmed and one elevated.

The newly installed chiefs are Nene Tettey Kwao, Nene Teye Kwesi, Nene Kweku Djertsor Agborkey III, Nene Tetteh Zuta, Nene Djorbua Ademah and Nene Ogbey Assumeng of the Luom, Agortor, Kpatsredor, Huapa-Adjakorpe, Tsumkpo, and Gbese-Terkworsi divisions, respectively.

Nene Tettey-Ekpa IV of Tsangmer Division and Nene Narh Ankrah II of Gbese-Terkworsi were elevated from the level of Asafoatse to sub-divisional chiefs while Nene Narh Guamatsu III, an acting divisional chief of Tsangmer, was confirmed.

Nene Animle said the Shai-Osudoku District lacked good roads and schools and a police station and appealed to the government to grant the area the status of a district headquarters to pave way for rapid development.

“Our present status as Shai-Osudoku District is not helping the people of Osudoku because all development projects are concentrated in the Shai area to the neglect of Osudoku, so it is necessary for Osudoku to become autonomous,” he said.

The paramount chief commended all the divisions of the paramountcy for peaceful and successful selection and installation processes and added: “You chose them and I expect you to cooperate and work with them as custom and tradition demand and expect that they also would commit themselves to the oaths they have sworn.”

Nene Narh Ankrah II, on behalf of all the new chiefs, thanked the Osudoku paramountcy for accepting them into their fold and pledged to abide by the guidelines of the Chieftaincy Act in order not to bring the traditional area into disrepute.