Anti-Ga Mantse Intrigues Thicken

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Created on Friday, 04 September 2009 00:00

Last Updated on Sunday, 14 October 2012 21:52

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Anti-Ga Mantse Intrigues Thicken

By A.R. Gomda

THE INTRIGUES to dethrone King Tackie Tawiah III as the Ga Mantse are heading for a crescendo as meetings on the subject now shifts to the Castle, Osu, the authoritative endorsement by a judicial committee on 18th July 2008 notwithstanding.

Towards this end, the faces of some personalities inclined to the scheme are now regular features at the Castle, where the dethronement agenda is a priority. Coming and leaving the seat of government, the intriguers have joined the long list of others who come to the location seeking the dismissal of one public official or the other. Proving to be a formidable subject whose fallout can be devastating to the government, meticulousness, DAILY GUIDE has gathered, is the hallmark of the schemers.

An earlier attempt at effecting the dethronement during the last June 4 celebration in the country was quickly shelved following security concerns.Whether this time around the scheme can go through, remains to be seen given the security implications this could wreak on the nation’s capital at this time. The alarms have been sounded over the development by some concerned citizens of Ga Mashie who seek anonymity.According to one of them, chieftaincy issues are so delicate and explosive that governments which delve into them soon burn their fingers and as he put it, Empirical evidence exists to prove that. Let them try it and they will live to regret it.

The concerned group has also expressed amazement about President John Evans Atta Mills paying courtesy calls on other chiefs in the country. But not deeming it fit to render the same deference to his hosts in Accra, especially since his wife is an indigene of the city”.The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Tawiah III, an intellectual known in his private life as Dr. Joe Blankson, lived for a long time in the United Kingdom and succeeded the late Nii Amugi.His brief reign has been docked with seeming government interference through a subtle non-recognition of his authority.

The King was stopped from performing the traditional annual Homowo festivities at the stool house by the Greater Regional Security Council which pointed at security concerns as informing the decision.

The MP for the Odododiodio constituency, Hon. Tackie Commey and the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, have both distanced themselves from any intrigue since the subject first hit the media.

During a rare press conference a few months ago, the King, a descendant of the legendary Ga King Tackie Tawiah I, expressed dismay at what he considered deliberate interference by the government in the affairs of the Ga state, recalling for instance the closure of the stool house of the Gas on the orders of the National Security apparatus.

The Ga Mantse, whose stool is entitled to a certain percentage of the takings of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has not received a dime since ascending the stool he stated during the media engagement.

The King told media representatives at his palace that although he had written to the President on his assumption of office, no acknowledgment of the correspondence had been received, a development which observers consider evidence that the government has something sinister up its sleeves against the royal personality.

His explanation that whoever infringes upon the tradition of the Gas, by for instance usurping the authority to perform certain rites when they are not entitled to them will reap the consequences was misinterpreted to mean a curse and was carried by a local daily.

The story, considered a slant, was preceded by a further explanation by the King who said, I do not curse, but rather pray for the progress of the nation”.But for the recent visit to the Ga Mantse's palace by the Mayor of Accra, no government official has met the King since the assumption of power of the incumbent political administration.

During a recent Homowo activity at Jamestown, where the arrival of the King raised the temperature of the venue as the crowd to catch a glimpse of him, government ministers present virtually took to their heels, not wanting to be seen to be associating with him and therefore attract the ire of their bosses at the Castle.

It remains to be seen just how the intrigues would work considering the 18th July 2008 ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Greater House of Chiefs from which the King draws extra authority to hold himself as such.The ruling was prompted by an application to nullify the Ga Mantse's nomination and enstoolment having been inducted into the Ga Traditional Council on 18th February 2007.

The application for interlocutory injunction was dismissed because the judicial committee held that, “Nii Tackie Tawiah III cannot be restrained from carrying himself out as Chief. Cannot be prevented/restrained from performing Customary Rites that go with his office as Ga Mantse.

We are also unable to restrain the Ga Traditional Council from inducting him into the Council as a member. Equity, it is said, aids the vigilant, not the indolent.

A party seeking to come to equity must have his eyes wide open, ears alert and even a sharp nose. Application for interlocutory injunction dismissed”.The revered members of the committee which deliberated on the application were Nii Tetteh II, Chairman, Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, member, and Nene Tetteh Djan III. Counsel/recorder was Mr. S.K. Klayson.

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana