Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has issued a bold call to Ghana’s traditional rulers to stand up and reclaim what he says are constitutional rights unjustly taken from them.
Addressing members of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs on July 17, 2025, the King pointed to the ongoing national constitutional review process as the best opportunity for chiefs to correct long-standing imbalances enshrined in the current legal framework.
Highlighting mineral ownership as one of the key areas where chiefs have lost authority, Otumfuo lamented that traditional leaders failed to resist when the law shifted mineral rights away from them to the presidency.
He criticized the status quo, which allows chiefs to hold lands yet denies them ownership of the resources beneath — a setup he said was accepted without proper resistance. According to him, this passive endorsement of the 1992 Constitution has now left chiefs boxed into a powerless position regarding their ancestral wealth.
He urged the House to take the constitutional review process seriously by formally presenting their collective concerns and proposals to the Constitution Review Committee. He stressed that this window must not be missed, as it provides a rare chance to rectify decades-old constitutional disadvantages.
Otumfuo’s message was clear: the future of traditional authority and its rightful place in Ghana’s governance structure hinges on whether or not Nananom actively push for amendments now.
Source: NewsandVibes.com
