By Tim Dzamboe, Awate
By June this year the Paramount Chief of the Awate Traditional Area in the Kpando District of the Volta Region, Togbega Noagbesenu III, may become a reverend minister.
Togbega Noagbesenu is a final-year student of the Good News Theological College and Seminary near the Valley View University at Oyibi on the Accra –Dodowa road and hopes to graduate with a Bachelor in Theology degree. He is thus set to be named: Reverend Togbuiga Noagbeseu III.
He enrolled at the college on the advice and sponsorship of a Korean Gospel Mission which visited his area, Awate, in August 2007 on a networking tour with the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church.
According to the paramount chief, during the visit the leader of the mission, Professor Kim, told him that he was touched after he had delivered a speech to welcome them and urged him to enrol in a theological college or a Bible school.
He said he accepted the challenge because he felt he could become an instrument of change in the chieftaincy institution and reorganise his colleagues for the review of some customs and traditions to glorify God.
“My prayer is for God to use me to build the capacity for God’s work in the chieftaincy institution”, he declared.
Togbega Noagbesenu said there had not been any proper coordination between chiefs and the clergy and that it appeared the clergy had neglected the chieftaincy institution although he considered the clergy to be disciples directed by God to reach out to all people on earth.
He said his move would encourage leaders of the various communities to pursue their leadership roles in ways that would glorify God and also honour people, who were the God’s handiwork.
Regarding the possible reactions of his subjects to his decision, Togbega Noagbesenu said his stool father and stool elders had agreed that there must be modification in leadership roles because many people did not know the actual leadership roles they were required to play.
He said there was no formal chieftaincy school that offered training to traditional rulers and that made chiefs to do what they thought was right in leading their people and said chieftaincy had to be modernised so that outmoded customs which militated against God’s glory could be eliminated in honour of humanity.
The paramount chief said after graduation, he would create a new ministry to be known as Capacity Development for the Word of God to serve as a non-governmental organisation to advance an agenda for a thorough blending of chieftaincy and the clergy to regard themselves as being from the same stock and, therefore, to work together to uphold qualities of good leadership.
“God is not a tribal god; the gospel is meant for all people of the earth,” he stressed, adding that “my new stand as a pastor is not in conflict with the stool because a throne or stool is never a bad thing but maybe when we think of the process of creating a stool by our ancestors, it may be questionable”.
He said he could manage conflicts emerging from chieftaincy and the clergy with his new role as a pastor, pointing out that even when the Christian missionaries arrived in the country their first port of call was the chiefs.
Togbega Noagbesenu is a member of the E.P. Church, a former rotational member of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, a board member of the erstwhile Volta Region Agricultural Development Project (VORADEP), ex-executive member of Mawuli Senior High School and ex- Regional Chairman of the Association of Civil Servants, among other roles.
No comments:
Post a Comment