The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has indicated that chiefs who have already assumed leadership positions must be allowed to take part in active politics.
He explained that sidelining the chieftaincy institution and preventing it from taking its rightful position to contribute effectively to governance does not benefit the country in anyway.
Mr Bagbin was speaking at a meeting with traditional authorities at the Volta Region House of Chiefs, during his visit to commemorate three decades of parliamentary democracy in Ghana.
“I completely disagree with the framers of the Constitution when they say that Chiefs cannot play active politics”, he said.
He said that the Constitution preventing chiefs from contesting political positions was against the basic principles of human rights, as they were denied the right to be voted for.
“The Supreme Court has given us an explanation of what they meant by active politics. But by the franchise, your right to vote is made up of two ingredients. The right to vote for somebody and the right also to be voted for by some people, that is the franchise.
So how can you give them half of it? The chiefs can vote for people but nobody can vote for them. That definitely is wrongful and unlawful. You can say it is constitutional, but basically, it doesn’t sit well with the basic principles of human rights”, he explained.
He complained about the fact that chiefs who are already community leaders were being prevented by the constitution from performing their primary role of leading their respective jurisdictions to develop and ensure that policies are effectively implemented.
“That is oxymoron, contradicting itself. These are some of the intricacies that we have to sit down to resolve. It is not right”, he stressed.
He, therefore, called for an amendment of the Chieftaincy Act to reposition the chieftaincy institution as an integral part of governance, to rectify the contradictions caused by the constitution.
He opined that the reforms could focus on modernizing the chieftaincy institution to meet the current dynamics of society, adding that the state must constantly support the institution to play its mandated roles in helping to develop the country.
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