Kumasi, Dec. 13, GNA - The Ministry of Chieftaincy Affairs and Culture will soon lay before parliament an amendment to the Chieftaincy Act, Act 370 of 1971.

The move is to grant chiefs some level of functional roles in modern governance and take opportunities in the traditional political system. Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, the Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs and Culture, said this at a day's consultative workshop on the interface of the traditional political system and decentralized local government structures.

It was held for members of the National House of Chiefs and some paramount queens in Kumasi on Tuesday.

The workshop, which was organized by the ministries of Local Government Rural Development and Environment (MLGRE) and the Chieftaincy and Culture, aimed at soliciting the views of the traditional rulers to develop modalities on how to organize the system to enable chiefs play their rightful roles in modern local governance system. Mr Boafo stated that chiefs' control of natural resources, their capacity for mobilizing the people and their moral authority should be taken into account and used for the progress of the nation. He said the traditional political system had attributes comparable to those considered desirable in modern day systems of democratic governance.

Mr Boafo appealed to the chiefs to identify the roles that they could play.

Mr Abraham Dwumah Odoom, the Deputy Minister of Local Government Rural Development and Environment, said the ministry was working on a systematic way to harmonize the traditional political system and the decentralized local governance system to ensure that chiefs played effective role at the local level.

He said it would be impossible to work at the local level without the involvement of chiefs and said plans were ongoing to establish a royal college to formalize an academic process to train chiefs to participate in local governance.

Odeneho Gyapong Ababio, President of the National House of Chiefs, said chiefs had natural leadership powers and there was the need for their active participation in decision making at the local levels.