Vice President, John Dramani Mahama on Saturday said a culture of insults and insolence was creeping into the Ghanaian society as the 2012 election draws closer. He said nations have been torn apart as a result of this canker and that care must be taken not to inflame passions and set the clock of progress in the country’s democratic dispensation backward. Vice President Mahama stated this in a keynote address read on his behalf by Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Regional Minister, at a grand durbar to climax the Anluwae Kundum festival of the chiefs and people of the Lower Dixcove Traditional Area at Dixcove. He urged traditional authorities as custodians of the country’s rich culture to come out to condemn remarks that would disturb the peace of the country. Vice-President Mahama raised concern about the numerous chieftaincy disputes which had become a bane of the country’s development and the chieftaincy institution itself. Vice-President Mahama said even when lives were not lost, scarce resources had to be wasted by the affected chiefs on legal fees. He said chieftaincy and land litigation were a sure recipe for stunted national development and “all too often, some traditional rulers and kingmakers embroil entire areas in litigation to the detriment of the entire society”. “At other times, the governments spend huge sums of money that should have gone into development on security operations for the maintenance and enforcement of peace”, he said. Vice-President Mahama said the confusion and warlike situations that are prevailing in certain parts of the country have chieftaincy as the root cause and these conflicts are brought about by selfish individuals who want to ascend to stools or skins by whatever means possible. He said under these circumstances, the government would definitely take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of life and property in any area associated with violent conflicts. Vice-President Mahama called on the traditional authorities in the area to ensure that there is common understanding and unity among the people of the traditional area in order to bring about the needed development. He said at this crucial stage of the country’s history, all human and material resources must be mobilised in the fight against underdevelopment, the precursor of poverty, illiteracy, disease and squalour. Vice-President Mahama said there was the need for a concerted effort to improve on the situation of the people and these call for pragmatic efforts towards the education of the girl child. He called on the Lower Dixcove Traditional Council to collaborate with the Ahanta West District Assembly to initiate an Educational Endowment Fund for the benefit of the education of the needy in the society. Vice-President Mahama said about 89 schools in the Western Region had been awarded on contract and most of these projects were near completion or have been completed and are in use. Nana Kwesi Agyeman IX, Omanhene of Lower Dixcove, appealed to the government to complete the construction of a sea defence wall in the area saying the project had come to a standstill because of lack of funds.