By Edward Williams, GNA
Hohoe (V/R), Dec. 23, GNA – Mamaga Ametor Hoebuadzu II, Paramount Queen of Alavanyo Traditional Area in the Volta region, says any effort to alter the composition of Ghana’s National and Regional Houses of Chiefs through agitation, associations or legislative pressure is untenable.
She describes the development as a direct assault on customary law and the autonomy of traditional authority. She said the Houses of Chiefs were constitutional and customary institutions and not “political laboratories for experiments”.
Mamaga Hoebuadzu, on recent reports of introducing queenmothers into National and Regional Houses of Chiefs, said she disagreed with such attempts to “force the inclusion of Traditional queens or queenmothers into the National and Regional Houses of Chiefs.”
She noted that queenmothers occupied an important but distinct role within the traditional governance system, and their mandate was rooted in deliberation on matters affecting their subjects, lineage, succession, role model, and community welfare.
“These responsibilities are exercised through established customary channels, not through membership in institutions designed exclusively for chiefs.”
Mamaga Hoebuadzu II said, seeking entry into the Houses of Chiefs was not empowerment but rather an institutional “confusion”, adding that if queenmothers desired formal recognition beyond advisory roles, the culturally legitimate path was the creation and strengthening of Regional Houses or Chambers of Queen mothers, not the distortion of existing traditional bodies.
She said the proliferation of associations and pressure groups claiming to speak for queen mothers while bypassing custom, undermined the dignity of both queen mothers and chiefs because tradition could not be restructured by “noise, activism or external influence” but through internal consensus and respect for precedent.
Mamaga Hoebuadzu applauded Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene for demonstrating leadership by drawing a firm line in defence of tradition, constitutional order, and cultural sovereignty.
She called on all stakeholders to desist from actions that threatened the balance of chieftaincy institutions and instead work within frameworks sanctioned by custom to ensure the integrity of chieftaincy must not be negotiated.
–GNA
