The President of All-Regions Queen Mothers Association, Nana Otubea III, has called on Chiefs in the various traditional areas to allocate 15% of funds received from local government to support the activities of queen mothers.
Speaking in an interview with a section of journalists at the launch of the Association in Accra, she said though most queen mothers across the country receive some form of allowances from the local government they were inadequate hence an increase would enable them to also support some members of their communities.
She said ” Per the allowances that we get from the local government, the chiefs are ahead of us. All we are saying is that when the budget comes, the chiefs should allocate some to the queen mothers.
Even if not at the various traditional councils, it should be at the regional level”
Nana Otubea III, who is also the queen mother for Nkonya Ahenkro traditional area and the President of the Oti Queen mothers Association said it may not even be a problem if funding were made available at the regional level in the event of a difficulty of allocating them to the traditional areas.
She also appealed to the chiefs to engage the queen mothers in the fight against illegal mining in the various traditional areas giving their role in addressing some pertinent issues at home.
According to her, efforts by some queen mothers to support the fight against “Galamsey” by providing information have proven unsuccessful due to failure by some state authorities to act swiftly.
She said the association formed over a year with representation in all the sixteen regions seeks to among others reinforce their roles as part of traditional leaders whose function as prescribed by the constitution cannot be downplayed.
“The queen mothers realised that we have been marginalised. There have been series of problems that have bedewelled us in our various traditional areas and most of the time, our rights have been trampled upon.
“We don’t seem to be recognised or taken seriously when it comes to nations developmental agenda”.
“It is as a result of some of the problems that we have as queen mothers that we have come together to fight for a common goal” she noted
Chairman for the launch, who is the chief of Nkonya Ahundwo and doubles as the Ankobeahene of the Nkonya Ahenkro traditional area, Nana Ampem Darkoh III for his part asked women especially the queen mothers to exude high level of confidence, know who they were, their worth to enable them achieve their goals in life.
Nana Ampem Darkoh III, who is also the acting Head of the Nkonya Ahenkro traditional Council emphasised women may not be able to accomplish much if they fail to acknowledge the power they wield in society.
Founder and Head of Mission, Diaspora African Forum (DAF), at the W. E. Dubois Centre, Dr. Erieka Bennett asked the queen mothers to work as change agents who were ready to use their skills and gifts to transform their respective areas instead of focusing on other superficial things that will not impact lives.
She further urged them to use their platform to develop programmes that would go a long way to influence the global community rather than an association that would be noted for the usual ‘talk shop’ others were known for.
Other dignitaries present at the launch include some Ghanaians from the diaspora, Chief Director at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Mrs. Gifty Joyce Oteng Bosompra and several other notable individuals.
Source: dailyguidenetwork.com
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