“If chiefs are well paid, they will not be compelled to go chasing peanuts and giving out what is our birth right,” he said in an interview with the Daily Graphic.

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He made the proposal at the start of a five-day workshop organised by the Otumfuo Centre for Traditional Leadership at the University of Professional Studies in Accra. Alhaji Jawula is the director of the Otumfuo Centre.

In Ghana, chiefs are the custodians of land and culture, but they have been under the media spotlight in the ongoing ‘war against illegal mining’ in country. They have been criticised for selling lands to illegal miners to carry out their destructive activities as well as remaining silent on the activities of these miners.

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A 31-page report by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) named several chiefs as being complacent in illegal mining.

The proposal is likely to be met with public resistance and the government has previously complained about the number of people on state payroll calling it was a drain on resources.