Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has revealed that the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, presented him with a special stool years before he rose to Ghana’s highest office, a gesture Kufuor interprets as a quiet expression of royal foresight.
Speaking on Pure FM in Kumasi during activities marking Otumfuo’s 76th birthday, Kufuor said the honour carried deep cultural weight. “Otumfuo knew I would become president someday, and that is why he gave me a special stool,” the former president told host Kwame Adinkrah.
In Akan tradition, stools are not ornamental. They embody authority, ancestral connection and legitimacy, making the bestowal of a personal stool a statement of the highest cultural confidence in an individual’s standing and future.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II turned 76 on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, marking the occasion privately in keeping with Asante custom through sacred rites of spiritual cleansing and soul consecration at the Manhyia Palace, with a public celebration scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
Kufuor described the Asantehene as a figure whose influence operates on both the spiritual and diplomatic planes, saying Otumfuo commands deep admiration wherever he travels globally. He credited the king’s calm and measured approach to governance and mediation with raising the international standing of both Asanteman and Ghana as a whole.
The tribute from Kufuor adds a personal dimension to a relationship between the two men that also produced one of Ghana’s most consequential acts of traditional diplomacy. The Asantehene credited Kufuor with laying the foundation for the resolution of the Dagbon chieftaincy crisis by entrusting Manhyia with the mediation, a process that spanned years and culminated in the enskinment of a new Yaa-Na in January 2019.
Now in his 27th year on the Golden Stool, Otumfuo’s reign has been defined by engagement across education, peacebuilding, environmental conservation and economic development, earning him recognition well beyond the Ashanti Kingdom.
