Enstoolment on the Golden Stool in April 1999
Otumfuo’s 10th Anniversary Celebration Brochure, prepared by the Planning Committee, under the able chairmanship of Nana Otuo Siriboe II, Juabenhene, states extensively that:
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“... On February 25, 1999, his immediate predecessor, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, the then King of the Asante Kingdom, went to the village.” Under Asante custom, a new king is only enstooled after the burial of the departed king. There have been times in Asante history where succession disputes have led to protracted civil wars in the Kingdom.
However, the period in the case of the enstoolment of Barima Kwaku Duah was the shortest in the annals of the Kingdom. This derives from the overwhelming support and universal acclaim he enjoyed from the chiefs and people of the Kingdom even as a ‘young man.’ Consequently, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II was enstooled as the 16th occupant of the Golden Stool on April 26, 1999.
Resolution of chieftaincy and land disputes
Identifying the key importance of peace and stability to the achievement of good governance in the traditional setting, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, on assumption of office as Asantehene, set himself to resolve the numerous chieftaincy and land disputes that had become endemic in the society.
Some of these disputes had been pending before the law courts for decades; and were having a detrimental effect on the peace and development of the affected areas.
He therefore caused these cases to be withdrawn from the courts for settlement by traditional arbitration. It is to the credit of Otumfuo that within the first couple of years after his enstoolment, virtually all the cases numbering over a hundred had been settled to the satisfaction of all the parties.
A notable innovation which he introduced in this regard is the electronic recording of the proceedings to serve as an institutional memory of the court and also to prevent people from reneging later on the very statements they had made. The foundation of a future traditional law and practice reporting system was thus laid.
The Dagbon chieftaincy crisis in the Northern Region
Otumfuo’s mediating role has not been confined to the Asante Kingdom alone. He was chosen as the Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry of Eminent Kings set up by the government of his Excellency President John Agyekum Kufuor in 2001, to find a lasting and peaceful settlement to the Dagbon Chieftaincy crisis which has taken a toll on the peace and development in the Dagbon area of the Northern Region of Ghana for a very long time.
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Indeed, as recently as March 17,2014, his Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, revived the stalled work of the committee by arranging in Accra, a meeting of the two factions, i.e., the Andani and Abudu factions together with the Tripartite Commission of Eminent Kings under the chairmanship of Otumfuo and requested them to resume their meetings until a successful conclusion was reached, so that peace might once again prevail in Dagbon.
The skill, wisdom and astuteness with which Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has handled traditional disputes have earned him the appellation “King Solomon.”