Veteran journalist Kweku Baako Jnr has criticized traditional authorities for forcing out the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive Kojo Bonsu after his relationship with them turned sour.

Kweku Baako, an avowed Republican, said it is out of place in current times for chiefs to force out the President’s appointee over a disagreement.

“I find it difficult, difficult, difficult to accept that situation,” he said on MultiTV/Joy FM's news analysis program, Newsfile, Saturday.

The Chieftaincy institution recognized by the 1992 Constitution was at its most punitive show of power after the Manhyia Palace kicked out Kojo Bonsu last Tuesday.

No amount of apology from Kojo Bonsu could save him after three years on the job.

Photo: Kojo Bonsu

At a meeting of highly regarded traditional authorities last Monday, July 11, 2016, the chiefs signaled an irrevocable end of the Mayor’s administration.

"They explained that in the past if anyone disrespected a chief, tradition demanded that the person is killed to appease the Nananom. The killing of the ram, therefore, signified that Kojo Bonsu had been killed and therefore he cannot be resurrected," Erastus reported.

Manhyia vowed to make Kumasi ungovernable if Kojo Bonsu persisted in staying in office.

Speaking on the saga, Mr Baako said Mr Bonsu may not have been tactful enough in his personal relationship with the chiefs, but the journalist who said he had ‘great respect’ for ‘a great king’ the Asantehene he is constrained in criticising him. 

Mr Baako acknowledged that criticizing the decision is walking a ‘tightrope’.

“I find it very difficult to reconcile myself with a situation where a traditional authority issues an ultimatum to a President and gives a timeline for which that ultimatum should be fulfilled,” he said.

However, Editor-In-Chief of the Observer newspaper and legal practitioner, Egbert Faibile Jnr., was in support of the decision of the chiefs.

“They say they are Republicans, I am also a Republican”, Egbert Faibile Jnr. argued and stressed that the Asanteman Traditional Council’s decision is not at variance with the 1992 constitution.

He said Article 270 (1) of the Constitution states, “The institution of chieftaincy, together with its traditional councils as established by customary law and usage, is hereby guaranteed.”

“The killing of the ram, is it, not a customary usage?...What is unconstitutional about what has happened?” he demanded.

He argued that the Ashanti traditional leaders have a huge history of exercising its powers since independence.

“This thing is not an easy thing for us to just look at it from a republican standpoint,” he stressed.

Mr Faible insisted that after incurring the displeasure of the chiefs to the extent of slaughtering a ram, Kojo Bonsu had no option than to go.

“The President has no option [than] to accept the resignation of Kojo Bonsu,” he said.

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