The move was to shield the traditional leader from being seen shedding tears publicly as that would depict weakness. The belief is that a chief is not allowed to cry, no matter how serious the situation or the occasion. It's seen as a show of vulnerability.
A video has been circulating online, which captured an aide removing his cloth swiftly and dashing forward to cover the chief with alacrity before others joined in to spread the cloth wide enough to protect the image of their chief.
Mahama and the NDC team who have been embarking on a nationwide tour dubbed “Building Ghana Tour” were in the Ahafo Region and visited Nana Bosompra’s palace when he poured out his frustrations on Wednesday, November 22, 2023.
He lamented the terrible nature of the roads and underdevelopment in the Ahafo Region although it is the NPP’s stronghold. According to him, the situation has afflicted him with an illness and the gods of the land have deserted him.
“Because of the dusty nature of the road, I have now developed a health condition. What is our crime? Ahafo Region, what have we done wrong?” the emotional traditional leader asked amid tears and sobbing. “Our road is critical to transporting cocoa, yet today our trees are being felled by Burkinabes exposing our houses to vagaries of the weather, what is our crime? When we complain too, we are being gagged.”
He bemoaned how some roads whose construction started under the erstwhile Mahama-led NDC administration were stopped and abandoned by the Akufo-Addo-led NPP government.
“The road in front of the palace was awarded to Kofi Job by the NDC and he mobilized his equipment to the site. But all contractors on Ahafo Roads were stopped immediately after the Nana Akufo-Addo government took over,” he narrated.
After winning power, the NPP administration reportedly put a stop to civil work on the Bediako to Kasapii road, which had been completed but was not asphalted. The contractor on the Gambia Number One to Dormaa route was also affected by the government’s decision.
Nana Bosompra said all the work that had been done on the roads before the NPP came into power has gone to waste.
“After many years of auditing, they were made to resume work. But all the work they have gone down the drain,” he lamented.
Out of six parliamentary seats in the Ahafo Region, only two are occupied by the NDC and the remaining four by the NPP. However, Nana Bosompra claims that although the Ahafo Region has consistently supported the New Patriotic Party, it has not given the region's development needs any priority.