Tomfoolery In The Street

For the umpteenth time the Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) made negative headlines early this week.

He did not receive any query from the president when he ruffled a female journalist. He attracted embarrassing and unenviable commentaries across the country.

The Number One Citizen did not find his appointee's unseemly conduct worthy of a reprimand. Those who claim that abuse of power and misdemeanour from the president's appointees will always go unchecked appear to have a point as empirical evidence gives credence to their stance.

Mr Okoe Vanderpuije is anything but a cultured personality. His sojourn in the US has had no impact on his rustic conduct, even in the centre of the nation's capital.

We wish we were commenting on a sterling performance from this personality whose obsession – which has constantly been attracting the attention of the president – has led him to go incessantly overboard in his relationship with residents of the city he is expected to serve and to superintend over.

When the name of a government appointee becomes synonymous with foulness of conduct, the image of the appointing officer – the president – cannot escape wry smiles and uncharitable comments from the governed; more so when the president declines punitive actions against such officials.

We have observed regrettably the persistent display of hubris laced with unacceptable impunity from this man who heads the AMA as though he was above query from his boss – the president.

We are constrained to think that there is something unusual about such a person who can order the handcuffing of a driver just because the man honked his vehicle horn. By all standards, it is a nuisance when motorists, especially commercial drivers, honk their horns without provocation. It is equally out of place for a president's appointee in the person of the Chief Executive Officer of the AMA, to descend to the depths of irresponsible conduct and order the assault of a commercial driver in the full glare of passersby. What a disincentive for the cultivation of cordial relationship between the government and the governed!

Mr. Vanderpuije has little or no respect for the residents of Accra, evidence about which abound for verification. If he continues on this trajectory he would one day regret his unbecoming folly.

Power is one of the most transient attributes of man and the earlier he appreciated it the better. Until recently, Blaise Compaoré controlled the state powers in Burkina Faso. It took the congregation of the citizens of his country on the streets of Ouagadougou to oust him from power.

Let those who wield power remember that ultimate and perpetual power belongs only to the Omnipotent and Omniscient.

When buffoons wield power such fallouts manifest foully. Accra residents should brace themselves for more crude displays from Okoe Vanderpuije who draws his authority to misbehave from the president, it would seem. In an ephemeral world, such abuse of power can only prompt smiles from the wise. History is replete with lessons for mankind, especially buffoons at the helm: all shall pass one day.