The role of the overlord of the Ashanti kingdom has a history far longer than the current 1992 Constitution and relevant laws in which the holder of the title is mentioned as a paramount chief.
This is the view of broadcaster Okatakyie Afrifa in his response to attacks on the person of the current Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II by Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II.
In an October 25 submission on the Dormaahene’s challenge of the Asantehene’s status and authority, Afrifa said, as an Ashanti, he was disturbed by the posturing of the Dormaahene in recent years.
“When you are given leadership, you are given wisdom to accompany it. Nana Dormahene, if the Asantehene’s name is removed from the Constitution, he won’t be made a lower chief (odikro) in Wenfie.
“And the Asantehene was not put in the Constitution because he will derive his legitimacy from that, the 1992 Constitution did not birth the (role of) Asantehene. It has traditionally existed and the Constitution only recognized it,” he charged.
He also challenged the Dormaahene to take necessary steps within the law to be allowed to create paramountcies if he is so minded.
“The Constitution allows you, why not go ahead and create paramountcies under your throne. The Chieftaincy Act allows you, so what is your problem? Go ahead and install chiefs and stop this unnecessary fight with Asantehene,” he added.
Afrifa holds that the immediate term political benefit for the Dormaahene’s attacks on the Asantehene is to ensure that the 2024 elections will go in favour of the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Afrifa added that the continuous attacks on Otumfuo will all but breed a generational fight between the two peoples – Asante and Dormaa – which fight or misunderstanding would outlive the Dormaahene.
“Nana Dormaahene, you are dismantling relationships and marriages. You will destroy friendships in the town,” he stated.
“Nana Dormaahene, what you are engaged in will breed a generational fight. You would have been dead and gone. Your ceaseless attacks on Asantehene is not palatable to me as an Ashanti,” Afrifa stressed.
In a recent interview with Ghanaweb, Dormaahene Osagyefo Oseadeayo Agyeman Badu II, said among other things that there was "no King in Ghana" as the 1992 constitution does not make any reference and room for that.
He is also on record in the past to have warned chiefs under the Dormaa jurisdiction from going to pay allegiance to any paramountcy aside the one that gave them their throne.
The Otumfuo recently reacted to the said claims pointing the Dormaahene to the fact that it took an Asantehene to elevate Dormaa into a paramountcy.
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Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and Dormaahene Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II