Bongo (U/E)-Ghana, July 16, GNA – Mr Lambert Kanluki Kanmiki, a 39-year-old professional teacher and native of Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality has been enskinned a chief of all non-indigenes residing in the Bongo Traditional Area of the Upper East Region.
Naba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum, the Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, performed the enskinment at Bongo with the title “Saama Naba” meaning “strangers chief” and gave him the name “Naba Atoe-Yuure Maltinga I”.
The newly installed Chief has been given the responsibility and power to handle the affairs of people who are not natives of Bongo but live in any part of the Bongo Traditional Area before those issues are transferred to the Paramount Chief of Bongo if the need arises.
Naba Lemyaarum explained that there were many non-indigenes residing in the Traditional Area and there was the need for someone to lead and help address issues that affect their stay in the various communities.
He said, “since Kanmiki came to Bongo, it has been 16 years now, he has a house and has married an indigene and is loved by the people in the traditional area, so, I think he is the right person to lead all the non-indigenes in the traditional area, if other non-indigenes have chiefs in the traditional area, they are all under him.”
On his part, Naba Kanmiki, the newly enskinned Chief, expressed gratitude to the Bongo Traditional Council for the privilege granted him, adding, it was a demonstration of the positive accommodating and hospitality attitude of the people of Bongo.
“This enskinment is not also to elevate my status to a ‘census’ taker of all strangers in Bongo, but to aid me serve as a yardstick for all strangers to look up to and conform to the norms, traditions, culture and positive development patterns of Bongo.
“The instalment of the SAAMA NABA skin suggests how tolerant the paramount chief and his council of elders are towards strangers, visitors, and non-indigenes in the land of Bongo. It points to the fact that their doors are opened to strangers in their community and indeed to good strangers for that matter.
“The respected chief and his elders want to make a case that investors are welcome to the land of Bongo and that they should put their shoulders to the wheel, to influence development in Bongo,” he said
The Chief promised to work collaboratively with the various stakeholders in the district such as the chiefs, indigenes, non-indigenes, opinion leaders and the District Assembly to enhance development of the area.
The newly installed Chief had been working in the educational sector and contributing to the development of education in the Bongo District since 2008 when he was first posted to teach at Akayonga community.
He later taught in many schools in the district such as Apatanga Junior High School, Fr Label Junior High School, St Anne’s Girls Junior High School, Apuwongo Junior High School and Sambolgo Primary School and had also worked as a circuit supervisor (now School Improvement Support Officers) at the Bongo District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service.
The teacher, who is also into business, particularly the hospitality industry owns and operates a guest house, wholesale of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and through savings and loans scheme, had influenced many people’s lives positively.
