By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Feb 4, GNA – The Tema Traditional Council (TTC) has expressed misgivings on the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Tema East constituency executive’s stance against their request for an indigene to be nominated as the Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive.
At a press conference addressed by Nii Amarh Somponu II, the Tema Stool Secretary and Shipi, stressed that “we take very strong exception to these statements reported to have been issued by the Tema East executive of the NDC.”
The Tema East Executive has been reported to have described the request of the Traditional Council for the nomination of a Tema native as MCE as flawed with no power to make such a demand.
Nii Somponu said those who questioned their request were losing the fact that Tema had its indigenes, and therefore, just as it was done in other traditional areas, they also deserved some recognition in that light.
“We are here as the sovereign people of Tema; we are no strangers to our land. There’s a perception that no one owns Tema. If you read the acquisition act, the land was taken from the Tema stool, so if there was no Tema, the colonial government couldn’t have taken the land from anybody.”
He added that “When you go to Keta, it is an indigene; come to Ada, it’s an indigene; come to Ningo Prampram, it’s an indigene; come to Kpone here, it’s an indigene; Nungua too, the same. So they are linking this to the fact that the perception is that nobody owns Tema, and it is most unfortunate. This is what we want to correct, and what is good for the goose is good for the gander unless they want to tell us that they believe that we are strangers in our own land; for that matter, people will compete with us when it comes to such situations.
He emphasised that the Tema Traditional Council would stand firm and kick against such attempts as they were ready to defend their sovereignty as people of Tema.
He cautioned the government against nominating a non-indigene for the MCE position to ensure a peaceful co-existence between the indigenes and other residents as it has always been.
Nii Somponu gave the assurance that they had people with whatever qualification was needed to merit such a position, stressing that appointing a non-indigene meant the government was giving credence to the erroneous notion that because Tema had become a cosmopolitan area, the rights of the indigenes should be foregone after they had sacrificed all their farmlands and fishing areas for the construction of the Tema Harbour, industries, and the Tema planned community, leaving them with nothing.
The Council threatened that if the government goes ahead to appoint a non-indigene as the Tema MCE, they would not recognise that person, stating that “What we are saying is that the person shouldn’t step here; we won’t welcome him. That person should limit his operations to Community One.”
GNA