Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, says he will amend the chieftaincy act to empower chiefs to enforce discipline effectively.

According to him, there is a lack of discipline in many societies due to the limited powers of chiefs to summon individuals to the palace.

“There is no discipline and I don’t know how it has increasingly happened but we have to go back and make amends. So I am proposing an amendment of section 63D of the chieftaincy act and this is what my manifesto committee recommends, that we amend section 63D of the chieftaincy act and give more power back to the chiefs,” he stated.

According to him, this proposal would enable chiefs to resolve disputes within their communities swiftly, reducing the backlog of cases in the courts.

“So we need to re-empower the chiefs, amend this section 63D which will be a priority of mine and then to be able to get the chieftaincy institution to really play its proper role, financially the institution needs to be resourced."

Additionally, Dr Bawumia outlined proposals to provide living wages to paramount chiefs, divisional chiefs, and queen mothers, ensuring that they receive adequate resources to carry out their services.

“You can’t give them responsibility without resources. So the recommendation that has come which we put in the manifesto is to make sure that we pay living wages to the chieftaincy institution. And by this, I mean, the paramount chief is 1000 cedis a month. Even to attend the meeting, it might not be enough for petrol.”

“There’s no payment for the queen mothers. There is no payment for the divisional chiefs and so we need to pay living allowances to the paramount chiefs, to the divisional chiefs and also to the queen mothers,” he said.