“Ghana needs to plan its development to dovetail with its culture and that can be achieved if the chieftaincy institution is made to play a role in the development agenda”, he stated.

He said culture and development were two sides of a coin, because the development efforts of every nation linked to its culture and many nations had succeeded in their development efforts because they had fashioned out their development alongside their culture.

The Tumu Kuoru was addressing this year’s “Paari Gbielle” festival of the chiefs and people of Tumu Traditional Council in Tumu on Friday on the theme: “Projecting culture and development in the 21st century; the role of the chieftaincy institution”.

He said hitherto, the chieftaincy institution was the most revered as chiefs wielded enormous power  and could mobilise communities to undertake communal labour, pay tolls to government, settle disputes and  were custodians of land among other functions.

However, the same could not be said today about the institution as the judicial functions of chiefs had been taken off by the courts.

Kuoru Kanton said he was however happy that government was trying to redefine a new role for the revered chieftaincy institution at the local government level to make it more relevant in this 21st century.

The Tumu-Kuoru bemoaned the open defecation situation in the district where majority of the people still did not have access to decent household toilet facilities.

He commended government for introducing the new Ministry of Water and Sanitation to address the sanitation challenges of the country.

He urged people in the communities, especially family members to take charge of their health by constructing their own household latrines.

“By next year, I expect 70 per cent of communities in the district to be declared open-defecation free and chiefs must lead this crusade in their communities”, he advised.

The Chief reminded government about the numerous appeals made for the upgrading of Sissala East District into a municipal status, saying Tumu was the second largest capital to Wa, the Upper West Regional capital.

“The creation of a municipality out of the district would open many opportunities and ensure speedy development.”

On security, the Tumu Kuoru appealed to police regional command to deal with the upsurge of armed robbery in the district, which had resulted in the death of many innocent people, especially traders during the course of transacting business.