Volta Chiefs and The Ban on Freddie Blay

Last week’s fatwa imposed on Mr. Freddie Worsmao Blay, national chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) by the Asogli state for ‘insulting’ Togbe Afede XIV, President of the Asogli Traditional Council and also the National House of Chiefs is unfortunate, to say the least.

The Traditional Council described the conduct of Mr Blay as “gross misbehaviour, and that he had “unfairly misjudged, unjustifiably employed misguided statements and intentionally insulted the integrity and personality of Togbe Afede.

Worse still was a clarification from the chiefs that the ban, declaring Freddie Blay persona non-grata in the Volta region, affects him only and not the NPP as a whole.

Ever since the issuance of the fatwa, a lot of ink had been splashed on newspapers, giving several interpretations to it as to whether it was a ban or not.

To be fair to the chiefs of Asogli, nowhere was mention made of a BAN on the NPP chairman. The keywords in last Wednesday’s press statement were ‘unwelcome’ and ‘can’t guarantee his safety’.

Now let’s juxtapose the two statements that triggered the wahala.

Togbe Afede: “Sometime ago it was one party building a multi-million-dollar headquarters. We (Nananom) all sat down and did not complain…and more recently some aspiring chairman of a party buying several 275 vehicles. These are matters that should attract Nananom’s attention and I am very happy that at least, the latest one has attracted the attention of the Special Prosecutor.”

Freddie Blay: “I find it a poverty of thought from individuals…my only worry is that individuals like Togbe Afede have come in…he says the perception of corruption and vote buying. I am disturbed maybe he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

“In his position as president of House of Chiefs in this country…maybe from nowhere he’s also risen to become a president or he has become a big businessman in this country, maybe he has never asked for loans, he got the money from selling palm wine to get there.”

Unfortunately, the chiefs would not budge even when reminded of an apology letter attributed to Blay several weeks back in the following words:

“I Freddie Blay, upon careful thought realise it’s an insult to the Asogli State and the people of the State. I also know it is bad manners to insult a chief or an elder in public, since anyone who is born from a home in Ghana must know this.”

But whether it is a ban or not, certain things are still not clear: If the Togbe made his comments about Blay in his capacity as the President of the National House of Chiefs, why did he ban him from entering only the Asogli state?

Secondly, considering Togbe’s comments against Blay, which implied corruption, had the NPP chairman not responded in the manner he did, but asked for an unqualified apology, would the Togbe had eaten humble pie?

THE PUBLISHER is of the view that, the Asogli chiefs could have taken other actions that would have been more effective than imposing a fatwa on Mr. Blay. One of such moves was the one taken by the Asantehene, Osei Tutu II, who waited and ‘exploded’ at a public forum with the president. The NPP went on their knees.

The paper also thinks that the ban puts into question the complex issue of applicability since Blay is married to a daughter of the Asogli State and has children who are proud to trace their matrilineal linage to the traditional area.