By Laudia Sawer
Tema, April 09, GNA – The Tema Traditional Council (TTC) says the oath they made to the ancestors of Tema not to accept and work with a non-indigene as the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tema still holds.
The council noted that “We, as the Traditional Council, in 2017 and 2021, slaughtered goats and established a blood covenant with our ancestors and the gods that we shall not at any point entertain a non-indigene of Tema as a mayor, a covenant that is still binding on us and for which oath we are always reminded to remain abiding.”
This was contained in a letter signed by Nii Adjetey Agbo II, the Mankralo and Acting President of the TTC, to the National Vetting Committee, MMDCE, available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
It added that, “We wish therefore to inform you of the oath, which we hold sacred, to which we abide, and for which reason any non-indigene mayor for the Tema Metropolitan Assembly is not welcome to our palace and Traditional Council.”
The TTC indicated that it was aware of attempts to impose non-indigene on them.
It protested the proposed move and indicated that, “We consider such an action an affront to our position and will not look favourably on it if we are denigrated in such a manner. We gave the president and his team all the courtesies and do not deserve such a level of contempt as being shown.”
According to the council, it was putting on record that it was only when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power that a non-indigene was made an MCE, stressing that a repetition was highly unacceptable.
“It will greatly impugn our identity and dignity and render all our sacrifices to Ghana as meaningless if a non-indigene is imposed on us,” it stated, recounting how the ancestors of Tema gave up their land for the creation of the Tema Port and the planned city.
It questioned if the people of Tema must sacrifice more than they have done, adding that especially in all the appointments to the many state-owned and para-state institutions, no Tema indigene in the NDC was considered for any appointment.
“Of the four Assemblies listed above, we have consistently had indigenes as Mayor for Tema Metropolitan Assembly. A position we are unwilling to sacrifice especially when the Traditional Council may require one of its own to attend to matters we owe sacred, for which we may not allow non-indigenes to be privy.”
GNA
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