Regional News of Thursday, 5 September 2024

Source: Stephen Darko, Contributor

Honour Bagbin with chieftaincy title in Volta Region - Group

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin

A women’s group in the Volta Region has called on the elders and traditional leaders of communities in the region to honour the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, with a chieftaincy title.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Volta Women for National Cohesion (VWNC) said such an honour has been way overdue for the man who made the most outstanding contribution towards the resolution of the Keta sea defense problem when he was a minister.

“As Minister for Water Resources, Works, and Housing, the Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin made more efforts toward completing the Keta Sea Defense than any other minister has shown in the entirety of the Fourth Republic.

“This, coupled with the fact that he is the most outstanding and long-serving legislator of the Fourth Republic, makes it imperative that we honour him, and I believe that this duty falls on Volta more than any other region,” read parts of a statement by the group.

Signed by its leader and spokesperson, Daavi Afawornu Atakpa, a native of Vui near Keta in the Volta Region, the statement also hailed Bagbin as the champion of the country’s morality who deserves a chieftaincy title.

It would be recalled that in November 2023, the chiefs and people of Suma-Ahenkro in the Jaman North District of the Bono Region enstooled the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, as the “Adasuokohene” of the Suma Traditional Area.

He was enstooled under the name Nana Adasuokohene (a god possessing strength to resist external powers) Alban Bagbin I.

This chieftaincy title, according to Odeneho Dr. Afram Brempong III, the Paramount Chief of the Suma Traditional Area, was to recognise and acknowledge his immeasurable contribution to the fight against LGBTQI+ in the country.

According to the women, the region should have been the first to honour the Rt. Hon. Bagbin this way: “But even if someone else has led the way, it does not stop us from doing what is befitting."

Daavi Afawornu Atakpa especially appealed to the elders and town fathers of the Anlo traditional area, especially Keta, to confer the chieftaincy title because of the Speaker’s invaluable contribution to the Keta Sea Defense project.

She also reiterated a longstanding call for a national honour for Bagbin, which the Speaker’s admirers have been asking from the government for years.

“We think in respect of this national honor, Parliament should lead the advocacy because the Speaker is not only one of them but a legend of the Fourth Republican legislature in Ghana,” the statement added.

Daavi Florence Kutsiami of Anlo on her part said, “Speaker Bagbin is a brilliant national character and has helped the nation in diverse ways. So the chiefs and people of the Volta Region as well as the entire nation should celebrate him in appreciation of his good works.”