Accra (Greater Accra) 28 July '99

President Jerry John Rawlings said on Tuesday that although the constitution does not permit government intervention in chieftaincy matters, it does have a constitutional duty to maintain peace, order and sustainable development.

"Where protracted disputes over land are causing fraudulent sales, unplanned development, violent clashes and bloodshed, we may be compelled to use existing legislation to vest the disputed land in the state and administer it on behalf of the owners pending the resolution of the dispute."

President Rawlings said this in a speech read for him by Mr Harry Sawyer, a member of the Council of State, at the launch of the National Land Policy Document in Accra.

He said government has no wish to take such measures but added that unless traditional authorities in some of the areas affected by lawless and confusion over land demonstrate a firm and urgent resolve to bring sanity to their areas, "we may have no alternative but to do so".

The President said although various people advocated the abolition of traditional land tenure system to avoid the problems arising from chieftaincy disputes, the national land policy, however, reaffirms "our confidence in the principles evolved and defended by our ancestors."

It cannot be denied, however, that some chiefs do not adhere to those principles, which enjoin them to hold and administer the land in trust for present and future generations, he said.

President Rawlings stressed that early steps must be taken to establish a division at the High Court to deal exclusively with land cases.

The launching of a policy document does not in itself solve problems. Rather, it signals the beginning of a massive effort to translate the policy into practical action, the President said.

He said for a policy to serve its purpose, plans and programmes will have to be expedited, the capacity of various implementing agencies will have to be improved and the public will have to be sensitised to the issues raised in it.

President Rawlings said the policy is a confirmation of appropriate laws and programmes already in place and a framework for new legislation and action.

The policy recognises the fact that land is a fixed resource, yet there is ever-increasing competition between the many uses of land. Land use planning is therefore, the only way to ensure that land is put to optimum use and that provision is made for the future.