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At an Asanteman Council meeting held at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on Thursday, October 19, 2023, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, responded to recent remarks made by the Dormaa chief, Oseadeayo Agyeman Badu II, regarding the powers of the Asantehene to elevate chiefs to paramountcy status.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, during the meeting, reiterated the historical account of how the Dormaa stool was elevated to the status of a paramount chief by a previous Asantehene. His intention was to provide a factual context and counter any recent attempts to distort this historical record.
The Asantehene emphasized that it was his uncle, the then Asantehene, who elevated the Dormaa stool to the level of a paramount chief. He also pointed out that even before Agyeman Badu I, the predecessor of the current Dormaa chief, Agyeman Badu II, assumed the Dormaa chief position, he had sworn an oath of allegiance to the Asantehene.
In a recent video interview with Ghanaweb, the Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeayo Agyeman Badu II, who also serves as a High Court judge, raised questions about how the Asantehene elevates chiefs to paramountcy status. He also claimed that there is “no King in Ghana” due to the absence of references in the 1992 constitution.
Agyeman Badu II argued that only countries like Morocco and Saudi Arabia, which have Kings and heads of state, have constitutions that recognize the presence of a Kingdom. He suggested that the Ghanaian constitution does not mention any Kingdom, and hence, there is “no King” in Ghana.
The Dormaahene proposed that, as part of a proposal to amend the Chieftaincy Act, he and others would lead a campaign to remove the Asantehene’s name from the Chieftaincy Act. He expressed concerns that failure to do so would set a precedent for other chiefs like the Ya Naa and Nayiri to also be included in the Chieftaincy Act.
Agyeman Badu II had previously raised similar arguments at various public forums and media interviews. He contested the extent of the Asantehene’s control over certain paramount chiefs whose jurisdiction extended beyond the Ashanti Region, encompassing areas in the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Western, and Oti regions.
The Dormaahene questioned the basis for the Asantehene’s authority to elevate certain chiefs to the status of paramount chiefs, enabling them to become members of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs or the Bono East Regional House of Chiefs. He believed that this expansion of the Regional House of Chiefs only added to the government’s expenditure.
He noted that if every chief followed the Asantehene’s practice of elevating others to paramountcy, it would result in continued government expenditure growth, as outlined in the Ghanaweb interview.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH with additional files from graphic.com.gh
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