Awutu-Mankessim (C/R), Sept. 28, GNA - A member of the National Constituent Assembly that prepared the 1992 Constitution, Nai Kwao Otuo V has advised Chiefs to study the laws and regulations governing the chieftaincy institution regularly.

According to Nai Otuo this would help Chiefs to play their roles properly on issues bothering the institution in nation building. Addressing a group of sub-chiefs at Awutu-Mankessim at the weekend, Nai Otuo stressed that ignorance of the laws and regulations guiding ones profession or institution did not guarantee his or her immunity when he or she went contrarily to the law. Nai Otuo told them that unless they took pains to study the laws and regulations guiding the chieftaincy institution and put them into practice, they could not live up to the expectations of people and this would definitely undermine effective development of their traditional areas.

Nai Otuo, who is also a Divisional Chief and a member of the Awutu Traditional Council, expressed concern about the activities of what he described as 'absentee chiefs' who lived outside the country and gave instructions on how their people should be ruled. According to Nai Otuo, the practice was not applicable in the country's traditional setting, because it did not augur well for effective traditional administration.

The people he said, must always feel the presence and the impact of their leaders, adding that the presence of the chief alone could do a lot of tricks in correcting things which otherwise might have worsened situations if such leaders were absent. Nai Otuo called for the early establishment of the proposed training college for chiefs to ratify these serious lapses in the chieftaincy institution.