Wooing Our Chiefs With Luxurious Cars

Eric Bawah

Where I come from, our elders say he who stole the chicken, the one who cooked it and those who ate it shall all bear one name:  THIEF.

From time immemorial, Ghanaians have treated chiefs with the respect that they deserve.

The chieftaincy institution itself has been able to withstand the test of time, thanks to the levelheadedness of our chiefs. When the late President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said our chiefs will run and leave their sandals behind, Ghanaians did not take the statement lightly. That was the more reason why millions trooped to the streets to cheer the coup makers.

It started like this in the run-up to the 2012 elections. Chiefs, queenmothers, imams, pastors, students etc were given luxurious cars in the name of politics.  Here we are again, barely two years to yet another election year and the chiefs have set the pace in the car-grabbing competition.  If you create, loot and share, you can easily give part of the booty to chiefs.

The NDC people are good at destroying personalities and our chiefs who should have known better but they succumbed to the trick, thereby exposing themselves to public ridicule.  I don't think the Manhyia palace, the Ofori Panin's palace, the Agbemefia's palace, the Yagbon Wura's palace, the Yana Naa's palace etc. need the luxurious pick-up vehicles donated by Mr. Mahama.

If the idea of giving them the cars was to resource the chieftaincy institution, it should not have come at these hard times when the populace are reeling under hard economic realities.  The timing is very wrong and the Council of State members should have duly advised the President to stop raking our already bruised wounds.  And come to think of this: do they advise him at all?

Polytechnic teachers have been on strike for the past four months and even mortuary attendant are supposed to keep our lean dead bodies and railway workers hit the roads recently, not to talk of the threat of UTAG, NAGRAT etc.  

The cost of these cars which were donated to the chiefs could have been used to pay part of the book allowances the POTAG teachers are demanding.  Couldn't the President have waited for the storm of demonstrations to recede before making such political donation?  And he was bold to tell Ghanaians that it was one of his campaign promises! Agreed.

Let me also remind the President of more important campaign promises he made but has not been able to keep. The NDC promised in their manifesto that when voted to power, they will use only one hundred days to get rid of all the filth in Accra.

Today, nearly six years in power, Accra has been taken over by refuse dumps and streets are littered with filth. Meanwhile, the NDC propagandists have kept mute as if nothing is happening.  People are dying of cholera, bilharzias, typhoid fever, malaria etc, all because the environment is filthy but the President thinks it is more prudent to give chiefs cars than get rid of the filth as promised in the NDC manifesto.

Has the President forgotten that he promised the good people of this country that when voted into power, the NDC government will introduce one-term payment of premium of the NHIS?  That juicy promise is still fresh in our minds and we will never stop reminding him to keep that promise.

It is true the NHIS is dying gradually, but we will never forget that promise until the NDC is booted out of power, come 2016.  When the NDC made that promise, Ghanaians were paying GH ¢ 15.00 as premium and even in that case we had many people in this country who were not able to register with the NHIS.  

And so when the NDC promised that such people will register once in their lifetime, people believed in them and trooped to the polling stations to vote for them.  We did not know it was all a hoax, a big swindle.

Indeed, has the President forgotten that they promised private schools in this country that when voted to power an NDC government will make sure children in private schools also enjoy the school feeding programme?

If John Mahama has forgotten let me remind him that the late Professor Mills went to the Great Lamptey Mills School in Accra to make that promise. John Mahama should not tell me that because he was not the one who made that promise he could not be taken to task.

When Mills was making the promise, John Mahama was his running mate and so it stands to reason that they planned together before the good old professor went to the Great Lamptey Mills School to make that hollow promise.

They even said the food that the caterers cooked for the children was no good because it was not a balanced diet and that when they come to power they will make sure a child eats one egg a day.  The sad aspect of this campaign promise is that apart from the fact that the government owes caterers huge sums of money, the food that few caterers who operate with their own money make is substandard.  All too soon, chickens in Ghana do not lay eggs anymore and so the children do not eat an egg a day!  SHAME!!

And come to think of this: was it not the NDC which promised the people of Dagbon that when they come to power they will set up 'a truly independent non-partisan presidential commission' to probe into the death of the Yaa Naa and some of his elders?  Where is that commission and who are the killers of Yaa Naa and his elders?  No wonder the sages say lies have shorter legs.

If the intention of the government to donate cars to the chiefs is to make them convince the electorate to vote for the NDC come 2016, then I am afraid to say the President has missed the boat.

Unlike the days gone by when a chief could tell a politician that 'me and my people will vote for you', these days because of the way some chiefs are deep in politics, they do not have any control over anybody in their domain, except of course their family members.

Ask the chief of Breman near Kumasi who openly declared his support for Mr. Mahama. His subjects are treating him with ordinary contempt simply because he stooped so low to support a political party. Dramani Bantama Akwasi Boakye, things have changed ooh!

And you the chiefs who will very soon use these pick-ups should know that posterity will not treat you with kids-gloves. Your people are dying of hunger and thirst and teachers cannot get chalk to teach the children of your subjects and yet instead of advising the President to have used the amount that was used to buy the cars to acquire chalks for the teachers, you chose to grab them with ease.

You sell lands and pocket the money knowing that the lands are the collective assets of your people which are given to you to keep in trust for them. Some of you sell gold ornaments that you inherited from your predecessors and use the monies accruing thereof to live luxurious lifestyles while your people suffer and die of common diseases which are curable if only one can get money to attend hospital.

Indeed, we have chiefs in this country who are self-made men and who engage in profitable ventures. These are not the chiefs I am referring to. The sad aspect of these 'Mahama Pick-ups' is that from this day onwards if we see any chief riding in a brand new pick-up we will be tempted to think that it was one of the pick-ups given by our car-giving President.

As for my chief who sits on a skin somewhere in the North, he doesn't need any pick-up car because our tradition frowns on a chief riding in a car. We want to see our chief riding on a horseback because that signifies dignity, power and glory.

Ask Naa Professor Nabila, he will tell you how glorious it is for chiefs from my end of the world to ride on horseback. As for me, I will say it as it is, damn the consequences.

 
Madam Naadu Mills
In my last article titled: 'Yours Sincerely, Lordina Mahama, Super First Lady', I made a very serious mistake when the issue of Madam Naadu Mills was not raised. It was not deliberate but as you are aware, every talkative easily tumbles along the way when chronicling issues.

In fact, she is one First Lady who proved to Ghanaians that even though your husband may be the number one gentleman of the nation, as a woman you have to work behind the scene to support him.  This one was a real lady.  Thank you for the correction, Madam Ajoa Yeboah Afari.

In 1818, (196 years ago) the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand III founded a tobacco factory which manufactured Toscano cigars. The Toscano cigar has a characteristic elliptical shape with truncated ends that have smaller diameter than the central part.  The flavour is so good.  Today, I will settle for Toscano cigar.  Havana and Don Candido can stay in their boxes for the mean time.

Eric Bawah