Humiliating Ordeal

Hannah Tetteh
Our foreign missions are broke, we have reliably learnt. It is embarrassing when our diplomats wake up in the morning apprehensive that a Brazilian landlord would turn up demanding his rent.

News about the worrying situation our diplomats are embroiled in appeared in one of our front page stories yesterday. From the Foreign Ministry's Chief Director's brief responses, he had already fielded questions on the subject from a radio station in Accra.

Local newspapers in Brazil and elsewhere where our rents are due, must have splashed the disturbing stories on their front pages much to our discredit.

In a country where the entitlements of our squad for the last World Cup tournament made the headlines after the money was airlifted to Brasilia, the closure of our mission for non-payment of rent would rob us of any iota of deference we have left to our name.

If only the Brazilian government could intervene on our behalf, we would be spared further embarrassment – given the personal relationship between that country and President John Mahama. Maybe we have taken too many loans from them for the Circle and Tamale Airport projects that we are unable to ask for further favours. Hmm!

The embarrassing situation is not limited to Brazil alone but also prevalent at high-notched locations such as the USA and South Korea, among others. The extent of damage to the image of the country by such non-payments can only be imagined.

We do not know how the diplomats suffering the ordeal are able to uphold the standards commensurate with their status on half salaries or none at all.

One message is clear about this anomaly – perhaps unprecedented in the history of our diplomatic missions. The financial challenge facing the country is beyond what we have held since snippets of the situation hit the public domain.

We are eager to hear what spin would be attached to government response to the story on the subject as it appeared in the Daily Guide yesterday.

We await a propaganda response that would seek to debunk the story or even announce that arrangements had been made already to have the outstanding bills settled.

Untruths and propaganda continue to hold sway in the management of the government business. Such anomalies have affected our national esteem in the comity of nations. And being avoidable, we are unable to spare those at the helm uncharitable remarks and even queries.

When the attributes of good governance are in place, there is no reason why our missions abroad should go through such humiliating ordeal.