The Supreme Ruler of Mamprugu, Naa Bohugu Mahami Abdulai Sheriga (the Nayiri), has written one more letter to the Paramount Chief of Talensi, Naab Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang (the Tongraan), to see to it that the Chief of Namoalugo, Nab Kolsong Na-Laam Nyuurib (the Namoal-Nab), is gazetted “within the next one month”.
This is the first time the Nayiri has added a deadline to his demand— the Crowned Head having written at least twice already to the Tongraan (also called Tongo-Rana) on this matter but received no positive result other than to have his authority openly challenged at the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs by the same Tongraan he installed at Nalerigu in 2015 as a chief.
When Starr News revealed in 2020 that the Tongraan had challenged the Nayiri’s authority, the Paramount Chief strongly denied in a heated rejoinder, saying his allegiance to the Nayiri remained unshaken; but he did not say anything further after Starr News produced evidence of his challenge in a subsequent publication.
The Tongraan had attempted to perform the installation of the Namoal-Nab by himself in 2018 (after the demise of the former Chief of Namoalugo, Nab Wamatamia Ndeema, who was installed in 1990 by the Nayiri at the time, Naa Gamni Mohamadu Abdulai) but was disallowed by the Nayiri who gave him some unchangeable reasons why no other traditional authority according to the history of Mamprugu but the Nayiri himself could install the Namoal-Nab.
So, the Nayiri installed the Namoal-Nab at Nalerigu, the Mamprugu’s Seat of Power, in 2018 through Mba Sakpari, a high-ranking elder— through Mba Sakpari because the Nayiri and the Namoal-Nab must not see each other face to face in line with an ancestral norm. Afterwards, the Nayiri applied to the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs so the newly installed Bernard Bugre Bade (who retired as a long-serving Management Accountant at the University of Ghana) could be registered as the Divisional Chief of Namoalugo.
But the Tongraan, to the disbelief of many people, wrote to the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs in 2018, telling the house that the application filed by the Nayiri (his own overlord) “has no locus and legal authority” and urging the house in that same letter to throw out the application. The concluding paragraph of his counter-letter says (in part) that the Nayiri’s request “has no basis and procedurally out of place and the application should be dismissed”.
In the latest three-page letter written to the Tongraan, dated 24th December, 2020, the Nayiri says: “I, the Nayiri, Naa Bohugu Mahami Abdulai Sheriga, Overlord of Mamprugu Traditional Area, and enskinning authority of both Tongo (the Talensi capital where the Tongraana is seated on a skin that draws its authority from Nalerigu) and Namoulugu (another way Namoalugo is spelled), wish to once again crave your indulgence to respectfully adhere to my request to assist in the gazetting of Namoulugu-Naba (Chief Bernard Bugre Bade).
The fact surrounding the issue of Namoulugu-Naba not being able to be gazetted for the past two years is a great concern to me, and more so since it is not the first time such gazetting is taking place.”
‘Your predecessors did it without problems’— Nayiri tells Tongraan
The Tongraan once suggested in a letter he addressed to the Nayiri that the installation of the Chief of Namoalugo by Mba Sakpari could be a source of worry and danger to the Talensi Traditional Area.
But the Nayiri replied by telling him that “the installation of regents and subsequent enskinment of chiefs for [Namoalugo] have always been done by the Nayiri since time immemorial with all your predecessors of the Tongo skins and none of them had ever raised the issue of danger and worry”.
And the Nayiri has said it, not just once, that five skins in the Talensi Traditional Area including Namoalugo— the rest being Nuungu, Bapella, Tolla and Digaare— are “traditionally senior to the Tongo skins” and, for this reason, these five chiefdoms can never have their chiefs installed by the Tongraan.
In the latest letter, the Nayiri also makes it clear to the Tongraan that there is no further excuse for failure on his part to do what his predecessors did without problems on behalf of the Nayiri— which has been to, as the Paramount Chief of Talensi or the Tongraan, assist in the gazetting of the Namoal-Nab after the Nayiri has duly performed the installation at Nalerigu as Mamprugu would expect.
“I have been reliably informed that, from the records, two chiefs— namely Namoulugu-Naba Ba-engba Yimbil and Namoulugu-Naba Wamatamia Ndeema— have both been gazetted without any problem with your predecessors of Tongo skins (Source: Chieftaincy Bulletin 2015, Page 208). In addition, the Divisional Chiefdom of Namoulugu-Naba has also been approved by the National House of Chiefs with the latest gazette being that of April, 2012, National House of Chiefs No. 793.
“Based on the above, I entreat you and the Talensi Traditional Council to as a matter of urgency facilitate the process of gazetting Chief Bernard Bugre Bade in the interest of peace and togetherness. It is my hope that within the next one month, I should hear something positive from you. I implore you to work with relevant bodies to provide the needed support to Chief Bernard Bugri Bade to bring this matter to its logical conclusion,” the Grand Monarch tells the Tongraan.
The Mamprugu Traditional Council has distributed copies of the latest letter to state security agencies, the Upper East Regional Minister, the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs and the National House of Chiefs among other important entities.
By: Edward Adeti, Daily Mail GH
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