Queen mothers call for recognition in land transactions
Queen mothers and female chiefs in the country have appealed to the government to take a critical look at how royalties from minerals and natural resources, as well as revenue from stool and skin lands are shared or distributed in the country.
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They said the distribution pattern of stool or skin land revenue and royalties from minerals as contained in the 1992 Constitution was unfair and discriminatory against queen mothers and female chiefs.
The concern was raised by over 600 queen mothers from the Brong Ahafo, Volta and Ashanti regions at a forum in Kumasi organised by the Project Coordinating Unit of the Second Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP-2) as part of the objectives of the project to effectively involve women and the vulnerable in the sustainable management of land.
The queen mothers said the 1992 Constitution was silent on queen mothers in the payment and sharing of royalties and revenue from land, and that the time had come for the nation to review the status and to make it clear for queen mothers and female chiefs to be appropriately catered for in the distribution.
The President of the Ashanti Regional Queen mothers Association and Mamaponghemaa, Nana Agyakoma Dufie II, speaking on behalf of the other queen mothers, also called on their male counterparts to allow them to formally partake in the management of land by making them signatories to all land transactions, especially in the lease of land.
The queen mothers explained that when they partake in land transactions, it would ensure transparency and accountability, as well as prevent the rancour and tensions surrounding land issues in the country.
The Paramount Chief of Asante Mampong, Daasebre Osei Bonsu IV, who chaired the forum, said the National House of Chiefs had started the process of including queen mothers in the House but that the issue was a constitutional matter which ought to go through the appropriate amendment for it to be implemented.
He urged the queen mothers to heighten their advocacy and to make their presence and wisdom felt as they represented more than half the population of the country.
Earlier in her address, the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Ms Barbara Serwaa Asamoah, urged the queen mothers to ensure that traditional authorities did not give out large tracts of lands to investors without having equity in whatever venture the lands were released for as a means of ensuring value for money and security for the subjects.
The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Adusei, in a welcome statement, said the Land Administration Project has been beneficial to traditional authorities throughout the country as it had supported them in the establishment of Customary Land Secretariats, as well as the demarcation of boundaries.
He said land was a critical resource and asset in the struggle for poverty alleviation and the transformation in the lives of the greater majority of the people, especially in Africa where over 70 per cent of the population earned their subsistence from land and other related agro industry.
The Social Development and Gender Specialist of the Second Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP-2), Mrs Sarah Antwi Boasiako, said the Kumasi forum was one of the stakeholder consultations geared towards the mainstreaming of gender into the implementation of all activities of the project.
