Be wary of land grabbers

Chiefs and stool heads have been urged to be wary of multinational companies and their cohorts who seek to buy large tracts of their lands.

Nana Tidibo

Nana Tidibo Kowura Odamba II, Paramount Chief of Ntroboman Traditional Area in the Nwanta South District of the Volta Region, advised the chiefs and those responsible for the lands in their communities, stressing that they should opt for a partnership instead of the outright sale of the lands.

He made the remarks as part of in-service training for teachers in the Jasikan Diocese at Nsuta-Buem.

“When you sell your land, you have sold your treasure and mortgage the future of your children” he stated, adding that the best they should do is to lease the land instead of selling the land.

Nana Odamba said since “our land belongs to our ancestors, the living and our descendants”, there was no need selling it outright in a way that deprives future children access to the land for their use.

He shared the bitter experience how one multinational company “led by our own people” and with the promise to develop his paramountcy got 3750 hectares of land, paying a paltry sum of $5 per acre per year.

He commended the Africa Network for Justice (AFNJ) for helping them in trying to rectify the irregularities in the agreement signed for the land.

With his experienced, he advised the Chiefs and stool heads in the country to be cautious of people who might front for some multinational groups in need of land to buy. “Please do not sell your lands” he pleaded.

Likewise, Mr. Wisdom Koffi Adjawlo, Programme Director of the Youth Volunteer in Environment, Ghana, speaking on the land grabbing, noted that the issue poses a huge threat to eradicating hunger and ending poverty as well as meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

H said there was a need for stakeholders to take action in tackling land grabbing and enrich their knowledge on the issue in order to address it.

“We need to cherish what we have,” he said, adding that we all have a role to play in our own small ways to preserve our land and ensure food sovereignty that would eventually help us end poverty.

Other speakers including the Mr. Lawrence Aziale, District Chief Executive for Jasikan, added their voices to calls for traditional leaders not to sell land, adding they could at best enter into a partnership with the investors who might want to buy their land.