The Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, Bonaba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum, has kicked against the involvement of traditional rulers in partisan politics.
According to him, it was important that traditional rulers maintain their value and sanctity of the chieftancy institution by doing away with partisan politics.
Baba Salifu Lemyaarum made these comments in an interview with A1 Radio on Friday.
“For me, I’m totally against the idea of making the chieftancy institution partisan. If the institution becomes partisan, we’ll lose our values; we’ll lose respect from our people. We’ll no longer have the full grips of controlling our subjects.
Because if today, a chief is seen campaigning for a political party, they can insult you; which is wrong- And if they insult you, you can’t take that person anywhere. And you’re eventually destroying the imaging of the chieftancy institution. So I think it is better for us to stay non-partisan.”
Whiles pointing out that chiefs had the right to vote in elections, he maintained that their choices should be known only to them and not openly display their political support.
“I want to advice my colleagues that let us try as much as possible to restrain ourselves from throwing our weight behind political parties when it comes to campaign. It is totally unacceptable.” He added
Though, the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act 2008 explicitly ban chiefs from doing active politics.
While some chiefs have kept to the provisions, others have stayed off them, arguing that they were discriminatory and against their human rights.
It could be recalled that in the run up to the 2020 general election for instance, a number of chiefs have made forays into partisan politics with open endorsement of presidential aspirants.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Ghana
