The Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Dr. Agyemang Badu II has stated emphatically that there is no king in Ghana and has cautioned against overhyping chiefs in response to the persistent references to some traditional leaders as kings along with claims that they are superior to other paramount chiefs.
The traditional chief who also serves as a High Court judge claims that the Ghanaian constitution does not recognize the status of a king and that the highest traditional chief that can be is a paramount chief.
At a meeting with some chiefs at the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, Dormaahene, who is renowned for speaking his independent mind without fear or favor, said this among other things.
“There is no law that says that if you are a chief, there is a superior one above you. I want to say without any doubt that there is no king in Ghana – there is not. For the whole of Ghana, the paramount chief is the greatest. If anyone thinks he is the king in the country, then all paramount chiefs should be dissolved for that person to rule so that some of us can go to maybe Cote d’Ivoire or Burkina Faso.
“It is something that has been entertained in Ghana, if someone is not a king, how can he be a paramount chief? As I am here as Dormaahene, am I not a paramount chief? We are hereby serving notice,” he said.
Dormaahene continued by advising the Bono Regional House of Chiefs’ traditional leaders not to entertain any unnamed individuals who have allegedly been offering to make them kings.
Dormaahene Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Dr. Agyemang Badu ll in a meeting with Nananom at the Bono Regional House of Chiefs says there is no KING in Ghana and again cautioned the Bono jurisdictions, stakeholders and public on any chief in Bono who accepts Paramount status from a third… pic.twitter.com/GguC2bgwyK
— EDHUB🌍ℹ (@eddie_wrt) August 26, 2023
We [Bono regional house of chiefs] have heard that some people are calling some of our chiefs to make them kings. As Bono Regional House of Chiefs, anyone who has been appointed as chief of the various towns is recognized and accorded the respect due to them. The Chieftaincy Act indicates the number of chiefs in Ghana including paramount chiefs, the Asantehene, divisional chiefs, sub-divisional chiefs, Adikromfo, and other chiefs recognized by the National House of Chiefs,” he warned.
Some followers of some traditional leaders frequently act out and address them as kings in an effort to elevate them.
They occasionally even make comparisons, implying that some paramount chiefs are better than the others.