Ada paramount chief cleared to lead

…In retrieval of decade-old royalties & land rent payment arrears

Ada State discussing its interest in Songhor salt enclave

Confidence is returning to the Ada State that traditional leaders there would close their ranks sooner and lead the people in the quest to acquire significant control of the area’s salt potential in the face of national level attempts to fully privatize the salt sector.

Chiefs in the Ada Traditional Area have the added burden of retrieving land-related revenues, including land rent and royalties, which have been in arrears since 2002. The exact amount of arrears is, however, reportedly unknown even to the chiefs.

The monies have been locked up because of disagreements between the Tekperbiawe clan, one of the four land-owning clans, and the paramount seat regarding who should lead the Ada State in collecting its entitlements. The Tekperbiawe clan saw it as their right because of their status as owners of the Songhor Lagoon, a status recognized by the other three clans – Adibiawe, Lomobiawe and Dangmebiawe.

On the contrary, the law only recognized the paramount chief as the rightful person to lead the delegation but the Tekperbiawe clan had insisted Nene Abram Akuaku III, the Paramount Chief of the Ada Traditional Area, couldn’t be allowed to lead because he was from a different clan.

So, it had looked like it would take forever for an agreement to be reached on who is to lead the Ada State’s delegation as the open demonstration of mistrust and trading of accusations by the land-owning clans had been continuing.

But last Friday witnessed what in the view of the people was a positive twist. Traditional leaders requested their people to pass a resolution capturing the exact steps they wanted the chiefs to take to promote the participation of the Ada State in salt mining, the collection of outstanding royalty and land rent payments. They also demanded that the people emphasized the leadership role of Nene Abram Akuaku III.

This occurred at a day’s capacity building workshop organized jointly by the Ada Traditional Council and Ada Songhor Advocacy Forum (ASAF). The workshop was under the auspices of Radio Ada’s Songhor, communal rights and traditional authority initiative, which is funded through the Mwananchi Ghana programme. Mwananchi is a project that seeks innovative approaches to using information and communication to improve governance systems

Nene Abram Akuaku III, who was appearing at an ASAF-led workshop for the first time, assured through his spokesman that he was committed to playing his leadership role as would be demanded of him in the people’s resolution.

Significantly, all four clans were represented and none dissented. Unlike previous meetings, mutual mistrust and accusations gave way to the common call for unity. One chief remarked: “We, the chiefs, need the royalty and the ground rent revenues more than the people” and have no choice but to unite and retrieve the monies.

The tone for unity had been set prior to the chief’s remarks by each of the five presentations made at the workshop. These were on “Salt Production – The Quality & Quantity dimensions”, “Land Royalties”, “Mineral Royalties”, “Laws on Songhor – Advantages  & Disadvantages for Community Friendly Legislation”, and “Salt – Experiences outside Ghana.”

All the papers highlighted the importance of working in unison, which is the most valuable quality for pushing the Ada State’s agenda of securing participation interest in the salt sector. Salt mining constitutes the mainstay of the people of Ada and serves as a backbone to the local economy, contributing significantly to the local assembly’s revenue chest through taxes and levies.

Presenting on “Salt Production – The Quality & Quantity dimensions,” Mr Stephen Quaye, a consultant, said the Songhor area bore salt with high quality potentials and therefore better placed for development than other salt mining areas of Ghana, especially as the onset of oil production has boosted the development of the petro-chemical industry – a prime user of salt.

However, long-standing feuds among traditional leaders in the Ada State, if unresolved, would diminish their chances of participating in the industry.

Official estimates say Ghana has about 500km coastal front with a total production potential of 2.2 million metric tonnes per year. Current actual production is estimated at 250,000 metric tonnes per year, of which about 62,000 metric tonnes is exported annually. Of late, interest in the Songhor area has tremendously appreciated. “This area is the most productive as far as salt production is concerned and crucial to the development of the salt industry in Ghana,” explains a certain Strategy for Ghana’s Salt Sector, which was prepared in 2009.

“Organised communities need to make sure they are participating in the mining industry itself so that they can maximize benefits,” Mr Alhassan Atta-Quayson, Coordinator of the National Coalition on Mining (NCOM), counseled at Friday’s workshop when he presented a paper on  “Mineral Royalties.”  He stressed that unity was essential for community organization.
Originally published in Public Agenda's July 15, 2013 edition.