Dr. Bawumia promises living allowances and empowerment for Chiefs if elected in 2024
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has pledged to introduce living allowances for chiefs if he wins the 2024 election.
Speaking to the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs during his regional tour, Dr. Bawumia emphasized the need for adequate financial resources to enable chiefs to effectively perform their roles.
“To be able to get the Chieftaincy institution to really play its proper role, financially, the institution has to be resourced. Because you can’t give them responsibilities without resourcing them.
“So the recommendation that has come which we put in the manifesto is to make sure that we pay living wages to the chieftaincy institution. And by this, I mean, the paramount chief is 1000 cedis a month. Even to attend the meeting, it might not be enough for petrol. There’s no payment for the queen mothers. There is no payment for the divisional chiefs and so we need to pay living allowances to the paramount chiefs, to the divisional chiefs and also to the queen mothers,” he said.
Additionally, Dr. Bawumia promised to amend the chieftaincy act to grant chiefs more authority to enforce discipline within their communities. He cited the current lack of discipline as a significant issue stemming from the limited powers of chiefs to summon individuals to their palaces.
“There is no discipline and I don’t know how it has increasingly happened but we have to go back and make amends. So I am proposing an amendment of section 63D of the Chieftaincy Act and this is what my manifesto committee recommends, that we amend section 63D of the Chieftaincy Act and give more power back to the chiefs,” he stated.
Dr. Bawumia believes that empowering chiefs through this amendment will expedite dispute resolution within communities and reduce the backlog of cases in the courts.
