Sunyani Krontihene must apologize to President Akufo-Addo

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.


I don’t know the criteria upon which Nana Bofotia Boamponsem, II, based his castigation and impugnation of the character and integrity of President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, but it is quite clear from the arrogant tone of his criticism vis-à-vis the appointment of Mr. Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh as Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, that the Krontihene of the Sunyani Traditional Council woefully lacks the requisite temperament and deportment for the status of a “Krontihene” or Traditional Mayor of the Brong-Ahafo Municipality (See “Appointment of Asomah-Cheremeh Shows Akufo-Addo’s Disrespectful Nature” Peacefmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/28/17).

Having unwisely and publicly endorsed then-President John Dramani Mahama in the lead-up to the 2016 general election, against the express stipulation of Ghana’s 1992 Republican Constitution and miserable lost their gamble, the Sunyani Krontihene and the Paramount Chief of the Sunyani Municipality, Nana Bosoma Asor Nkrawiri, would have the now-President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo do their bidding by appointing a pro-National Democratic Congress operative as Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister.

If such intemperate demand does not constitute the very apex of arrogance, I don’t know what else does (See “Appointment of Asomah-Cheremeh Shows Akufo-Addo’s Disrespectful Nature – Krontihene” Peacefmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/29/17).

As I wrote in a previous column on this subject, President Akufo-Addo needs to promptly take up this case of unprovoked abuse and insolence with both the Brong-Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs and the National House of Chiefs. Being inducted or invested as a traditional ruler does not license the Sunyani Krontihene to call the character and integrity of the President of our august Republic into question when, in reality, it is the rather uncouth and intemperate critic whose character ought to be called into question.

Indeed, it clearly appears that what both the Paramount Chief of Sunyani and his Krontihene, or arch-lieutenant, cannot abide is the fact that Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh, a professionally trained lawyer and then-New Patriotic Party’s Regional Chairman, had not hesitated to let these reprobate chiefs fully appreciate the fact that stooping so low as to unconstitutionally indulge in partisan politics made them unworthy of their statuses as traditional rulers.

The Sunyani Krontihene also risibly claims that the flat refusal of Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh to approve and dignify the grossly irresponsible political partisanship of the Sunyanimanhene, or Paramount Chief, and himself constitutes some form of flagrant insubordination, a charge which they have yet to logically define and morally justify.

As to how these rascally chieftains expect the leaders of the New Patriotic Party, at whom they have been thumbing their noses for at least the past four years, to pretend as if the members of the Sunyani Traditional Council have conducted themselves with the sort of monarchical decency enjoined by the Constitution, ought to stagger the mind of any critically-thinking person.

The fact of the matter is that both Nana Boamponsem and Nana Nkraiwri cannot have their proverbial cake and eat it too, once more. And the sooner they come to terms with this fundamental reality, the better such turnaround is apt to redound to both the short- and long-term benefit of themselves and the Sunyani residents whose interests and aspirations they claim to serve.

Indeed, if the good people of Brong-Ahafo have any gross leadership misbehavior to worry about, it is definitely the knavish or scandalously unprincipled behavior of the membership of the Sunyani Traditional Council that they need to worry about. It also constitutes the very height of arrogance for the Sunyani chiefs to pretend as if their municipality is all that there is to the Brong-Ahafo Region.

To be frank with these rogue chiefs, had my two elder siblings been born in Sunyani, and not Berekum, to our maternal grandfather, the Rev. T. H. Sintim, of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, I would be deeply embarrassed. I also don’t know what impressions of these chiefs one of my recently deceased uncles, Mr. Nicholas Ofosuhene-Sintim, a former Director of Economic Planning for Brong-Ahafo, acquired about these evidently shameless and vulturously-mannered political parasites. Not that it would really matter, anyhow.