Ga Mantse Is Delaying With His Apology � Victor Smith

Ghana�s newly appointed Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Mr. Victor Smith, has said that the Ga Mantse, Nii Tackie Tawiah III, is allowing too much time to pass in rendering an apology to President John Evans Atta Mills. �He should apologize. He should take the necessary actions. He shouldn�t sit there and make the thing look like NDC, NPP politics.� Nii Tackie Tawiah, known in private life as Dr. Joe Blankson, is aggrieved at what he says is the government�s deliberate attempt to despise and refuse him official recognition as king of the Ga state, and chose the occasion of President Mills� state of the nation address before Parliament on Thursday, February 25, to castigate the government. The king was not invited to the programme as would be the norm, and the government says he needs to take steps to gazette his authority to merit recognition. The angry king also had harsh words for the president, advising him not to be �fooled� by persons around the president he described as �standard 7� grades, a reference to what used to be a most respected educational qualification but which has long ceased to be even a basic requirement for a job opening or school admission. Mr. Smith, who spoke on Asempa FM on Wednesday, said the king�s language was unbecoming of a traditional leader and too demeaning of the president of the republic elected by majority of Ghanaians and so he must apologize. According to Victor Smith, who explained that his counsel to the king should not be seen as an ultimatum, King Tackie Tawiah, like any other citizen, had more convenient channels to seek redress if he felt aggrieved in any way, such as seek audience with the Chieftaincy Minister, the Council of State, Parliament or the National House of Chiefs and should not have taken the course of publicly abusing the president. �He is wrong in addressing a grievance,� he maintained. He told Nana Kwabena Bobie Ansah, host of the programme, that the government�s position was that what is lawful should be done, and that means that he must get his authority duly gazetted before he holds himself out as Ga Mantse. Again, Victor Smith said, he was aware the Ga Traditional Council was trying to resolve the matter of King Tackie Tawiah�s authority and there was no need for him to have jumped the gun.