The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has urged the government to amend the constitution to consider traditional leaders in decision-making at the national level.
Addressing the Queen Mother Association of Ghana at his office, he said the review of the 1992 constitution should allow some traditional leaders to qualify to be in parliament as MPs.
According to him, queen mothers are influential and powerful in their various communities; thus, their view cannot be overlooked in terms of decision-making in the country because the government placed their hopes and aspirations into the hands of only the politicians, and they lost them.
“Countries like Botswana and Rwanda have gotten it right. The presence of these traditional leaders brings sanity and discipline into the House [Parliament] and contributes to enhancing our rich culture,” the Speaker said
The President of the Queen Mothers Association and the Queen Mother of the Nkonya Traditional Area, Nana Otubea, bemoaned the exclusion of queen mothers in decision-making at the regional and national houses of chiefs.
She said the exclusion of queen mothers at regional and national houses of chiefs was discriminatory and made them second-class citizens.
