BY all indications the job of the President is daunting and exacting. For a Third World country like Ghana, with its myriad of multi-faceted problems, anyone who offers himself as leader must expect nothing but sleepless nights, not even if he swallows hundreds of grammes of valium or any of its derivatives.
Even before the President sets out from his residence the morning for the Castle, he has to contend with visits from close relatives, intimate friends and party loyalists whose business cannot be mixed with the official one at the Castle.
Not that there cannot be thrills and excitement. While being driven at high speed in a custom-made limousine on the best roads in the city to the office, the President may, for a moment, forget that the streets are not as empty as the speed and fluidity with which his motorcade cutting through space may portray. That is when the power and the glory of the Presidency come into full bloom, and that is how some people who watch the gleaming vehicles speeding by nurture big dreams of going to the Castle.
Our President, in that cosy environment, may not know that thousands of motorists are trapped in suffocating traffic in the city, starting from the outskirts at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange.
With the ride over, the President is confronted with the real business of the day when he finally arrives at the Castle. I can just picture it. The day’s office work may start with the study of the Situation Report (Sitrep) filed from the national security apparatus. It is absolutely necessary that the President begins this way, at least to assure himself that the state of the nation called Ghana is healthy and secure.
He may then go through the mails, or at least be seen to have done so, and go through the motion of assigning responsibilities. He may then receive briefings by his close lieutenants and confidantes, such as the Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, the Chief Advisor and the Head of National Security.
The President then turns to some schedules, which may include meetings with the diplomatic community, by way of receiving letters of credence from new envoys, receiving farewell messages from those departing after their duty tour in Ghana and holding discussions with international business delegations.
Our President should be tired and hungry by now, but before retiring for lunch break and preparing for the Cabinet meeting scheduled for the late evening, there are these multitudes of different delegations he must attend to or risk being described as uncaring. These are the delegations that I am interested in and who, under a normal scheme of things, do not have any business disturbing the President.
The first of such delegations has travelled from one of the numerous traditional areas we have in the country to announce the death of a chief and to officially invite the President to the funeral. Death is a painful thing and the death of a prominent chief is news. But should the announcement of death eat into the President’s time when his schedule is already tight and heavy?
Our President is already racking his brain trying to get solutions to poverty which is eating away his people; he is grappling with the problem of streetism which he could not miss, even through the heavily tinted windows of his limousine while being driven to the office. He is aware that notwithstanding his efforts, a lot of our children are still not in school and some of those who go virtually return home empty headed for several reasons, including lack of teachers, teaching materials and congenial classrooms.
The President knows, even if he has not been told by his ministers, that most of the traffic lights in the capital city do not function, just as many homes are in darkness because of power outages.
Even if everything seems to be well with the President, as a human being he cannot fail to worry over some of the insults he has to cope with every day from serial callers who make a living using unprintable words against perceived political opponents and the President in particular. So, he would need a little bit of time for sober reflection.
After the departure of this delegation, there is another with a similar mission, albeit with a slight difference. This delegation from a traditional area has come to thank the President for attending the funeral of their late chief.
If it is not about the funeral of a chief, then it must be about the enstoolment and installation of another. And the President must be told in person at the Castle.
Should this also consume the President’s precious time? These are the same chiefs who are always crying for one amenity or another. How can the President respond to these cries if he has to spend time just to receive a thank-you message? What are the roles of his representatives in the districts and regions if certain simple information cannot be channelled through them for the attention of the President? Why do we have a Minister for Chieftaincy Affairs if he cannot receive funeral announcements on behalf of the government?
The ordeal with delegations is not over. There is another group of chiefs who has come to the Castle to thank the President for creating a new district for the people, even before the proposal receives legal or constitutional backing. Is it charitable work for the President to create a district if there is good reason for it? And do we have to thank him for performing his statutory assignment as the Chief Executive Officer of the land?
Following these chiefs is another batch that has come to complain about the siting of the capital of a new district created for their area and, therefore, want a change.
You see where the President’s good intentions has landed him and his government?
There is still another group of chiefs supported by their youth who have come to lodge a protest with the President for not remembering them in the creation of new districts.
Chiefs are not the only people who take delight in sending delegations to the Castle. About a month ago a group of principals of some teacher training colleges went to the Castle to thank the President for giving their schools vehicles. Outrageous!
Even if they are so excited, as if the President dipped into his own pocket to buy those vehicles for them, couldn’t they have sent a “thank you” card to the President through the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service?
Our women, who claim what men can do they can do it better, proved how grateful they could also be in a rather dramatic manner when some pregnant women marched to the Castle about three weeks ago to thank the President for allowing them free access to medical services. Some were even heard boasting, out of excitement, that they could now encourage their husbands to impregnate them the more. “Condom-free all the way” was their battle cry.
Our culture recognises favours, goodwill and good work. That is why there is a common saying that a person who does good deserves praise or commendation. But should that mean that every day the President should receive delegations carrying ‘thank you’ messages along with them?
Why are politicians criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country with lots of promises under their armpits around this time of the year if not because they want our authority to govern us? Why should we be the ones to wake up every morning going to the Castle to thank the President for doing just a bit of the numerous things he promised to do for us with our own national resources which are under his full control?
Why should we be the ones going to the President and his ministers to thank them for the work they offered themselves freely to do and for which reason we have spent a huge chunk of our national resources to make their lives more comfortable than ours?
By all means we need to express appreciation where it is due, especially in exceptional situations, to boost morale and serve as an encouragement for bigger achievements and successes. However, when it is done in a sycophantic manner, the returns become negative for the progress of the nation.
There is good reason to believe that this attitude has a lot to do with the mindset of our leaders who, along the line, begin to see themselves more as gods and masters than the servants that they pledged to be.
Surely, the ministries, departments, agencies and assemblies were not created for nothing. A lot of load could be taken off the shoulders of the President if most of these delegations, whatever their mission, will end their trips at the doorstep of any of these institutions.
For the President to go to the office and spend the whole day receiving funeral and “thank you” means we do not have serious problems facing us as a nation. The Castle should remain the seat of government where serious business is conducted and the President must have the peace to do so.
It is also time we absorbed the bare truth that governments everywhere are not charitable institutions that dish out favours to their citizens, not even dictatorships.
Therefore, the President and his ministers are not doing us any favour if they do what is constitutionally required of them, more so when they freely offered themselves to serve the nation. That is why, as a reciprocal gesture, we sacrifice a lot to make their lives very comfortable, even if that means some other citizens forfeiting their basic and legitimate needs.
Therefore, it is the people of Ghana who deserve a very big “thank you” from the President for having given him their mandate, among the millions, to be their supreme leader.
Kofiakordor.blogspot.com
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
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