So What Exactly was Hannah Tetteh Disrespectful for?

When the matter of Ms Hannah Tetteh being branded disrespectful first broke on the airwaves, I became curios for the simple reason of it being an attack on the “Sisterhood of Woman.” Women in such high offices of state are rare in Africa, especially and for the sake of the struggling female species on the continent. Thus, women like Ms Tetteh ought to be defended and supported in their effort to blaze the trail for generations of women unborn. I read various accounts of the events that led to the lady being branded as such, by former president Rawlings.

Finally, I managed to get hold of what seems to be the lady's own account and for the sake of this write-up in support of a “sister under siege,” I have decided to quote the lady's version verbatim.

“I heard the Joy FM story. The facts as far as I am concerned are as follows: On Monday as far as I was concerned the No. 1 item on my agenda was the emergency Cabinet Meeting for 10.00 am. I got a call from Amb. Quartey - Sec to the President at 9.45 asking me to stand in for the President at the Mayors Conference, and that the program was starting at 10.30 am, I asked for the speech to be emailed to me so that I could leave, at 10 am my Chief of Protocol started calling me frantically that the program had been brought forward to 10 am but that while the Mayor of Accra was indicating the VP was coming when he called his protocol officers there was no response and so could I hurry up & come because the program was to start. I rushed to the Conference centre to be told by the Mayor that he had spoken to the President and the VP was coming. My response was that if that was the cased then there was no need for me to be there.

I decided to sit & wait to see if the VP would come because my understanding was that I was to stand in, and give the President's speech and I thought it wasn't a good idea to leave and be called back. I was sitting on the other side of the room from JJ.

As soon as the VP arrived he went to JJ to greet him & other dignitaries (who I hadalso greeted when I got there), they were all chatting so I slipped out of the other door and left to go to Cabinet. Admittedly I didn't tell all the people I had previously greeted that I was leaving, but I felt it wasn't really necessary to announce my departure & explaining to everyone the reason why as the program was already running very late & I was sure the focus would be on getting started. Now how is that disrespectful?"

Having worked in a male-dominated corporate environment for many years, I myself have stood in for various people on numerous occasions, although usually informed in good time so I could prepare my own speeches/presentations.

Where is the offence?
I do not know Ms Hannah Tetteh from Adam. Apart from being a sister, the only other thing that remotely connects us is the fact that we both hail from the Central Region of Ghana and that her constituency is probably not too far away from mine. I did not even attend the same secondary school as Ms Tetteh. In fact, I had not heard of her until she was nominated “Spokesperson” by the late Prof Ata Mills. I have since read a few things about her though, such as being forced by circumstances to defend the (in)famous Ruby Adu-Gyamfi (alias Nayele Ametefeh, alias Angel Nyafele)!

Now my question is how exactly was Ms Tetteh disrespectful to anyone in this matter, if her statement quoted above truly describes the sequence of events? Are we serious as a country? No, I don't think so, and the heart breaking images of explosion, fire and water and preventable deaths that have engulfed our national capital offers further confirmation.

As far as I can remember, everyone that has ruled Ghana since independence has, at one time or another, delegated one or other of his subordinates, to represent him at functions, including international gatherings in Ghana and abroad. Further down the ladder, ministers and other government appointees have delegated others for one reason or another. I remember my friends and I being peeved because on our final speech and prize giving day in secondary school, the minister sent an Assistant Principal Secretary to represent him. So it must be normal for the President of the Republic to send his Foreign Minister to represent him at a gathering of mayors of African and other cities?

When exactly did the President's handlers and other officials, personal secretary, Chief of Staff and other hangers-on at the Flagstaff House get to know that there was going to be such a conference in Accra? Presumably the invitation to open the conference was sent to the president of the republic before-hand? As late as the assignment was, did anybody try to find out from the Head of State why he nominated his Foreign Minister and not his vice?

The speech was emailed about 9:45am. About the same time as Ms Tetteh waited anxiously for the email with the attachment to appear on her smart phone, the mayor of Accra, presumably the convener of the conference, butts in to say that the opening of the conference was actually scheduled for 10:00am, not 10:30. Could the minister therefore hurry and get to the venue in about fifteen minutes, so the conference could start on time? In the normal order of things, this man must be far below the minister in the hierarchy.

If the original report on Ghanaweb is anything to go by, the minister somehow manages to get to the venue on time, but the local ghetto bully is up in arms wagging his finger furiously, “No, no, no, you are not the one to open this august conference”. Really? An assembly of incompetent and clueless mayors of failed cities like Accra, Lomé, Banjul, Lagos, Free Town and Monrovia and a solicitor with her kind of curriculum vitae and personal accomplishments could not speak to that bunch? Lord have mercy!

Her feelings
Disrespect huh? Did anyone think of her feelings, the effect on her husband, children and loved ones? After this major cock-up and humiliation, did anyone really expect Ms Tetteh to sit there with a broad grin to watch this national display of incompetence, crass irresponsibility and sheer stupidity?

My oh my, as the Girls' Prefect of my primary school some five decades ago, my gentleman of a primary school head teacher would never, ever have dreamt of treating a young girl like that. Is this really what we are paying for as a country?

In the good old days of “Jaguar Jokers”, there was always an important moral lesson in their displays, but this?

Disrespectful?
Do to others as you would have them do to you, says the good book in Matthew 6:31. Talking of disrespect, how will former President Rawlings feel if someone treated one of his daughters like that? What exactly happened to “that young upstart of no social standing, Dentu”, who had the temerity to date one of his daughters? How about calling a sitting president Ataa Ayi, thief and other unprintable names? Only a few days earlier, Mr Rawlings was heaping insults on the bones of the late Professor Ata Mills of Ekumfi. How I wished my “traditional Uncles'', the chiefs of Ekumfi had balls like the chiefs of old!

What exactly is former President Rawlings' position in the scheme of things in Ghana today? Founder of the ruling party? Good. But which part of our national constitution empowers the founder of a ruling party to reverse the decisions of the man that nearly half of the population of Ghana went to the polls to elect as head of state? Talking about respect, has the former head of state found it in himself to tell the docile people of Ghana, exactly how he managed to find the money to found that party? How about telling us how after destroying other hardworking people's businesses, his wife managed to acquire 15% shares in Ghana Rubber Estates Limited?

One time too many
The level of incompetence and plain bad manners surrounding this government is getting out of hand. A little while ago, a deputy minister began reading her official speech at an important conference (talking shops, with little action), when she suddenly realised that the speech she was reading was the version she had discarded in her waste bin several days earlier. She created a scene and rightly so. Did anyone get fired for that outrage? Not one that was made public anyway.

I am almost certain that a group of men in the ministry (although we sisters are sometimes even more vicious when we have a go at one of our own) got together to try and “put her where she belongs." In the old days, an Assistant Principal Secretary would have made sure the minister took home the FINAL copy of the speech, always ready to make any further changes should the minister return the next day with any further corrections. And they didn't even have typewriters that stored texts until the late 1980s.

Just last week or the week before, the President of the Republic began rifling through a sheaf of poorly assembled A4 papers because from page seven, he was suddenly reading page ten. Somebody had got it wrong! Where in the world does the president of a country deliver an unbound and unrevised speech to an international audience? Can this really be the country Nana Kwamena Ansah, Kwaw Ebonyi, Mensah Sarbah and other patriots risked their lives and resources for, culminating in Kwame Nkrumah's speech on the stroke of mid night on 6th March 1957?

Whatever happened to our fine civil/public service that produced geniuses like AK Adu,. KK Dadzie, EL Quartey. Casely-Hayford, Kofi Annan, KY Amoako and others?

Fellow countrymen and women, respect is earned, not given on a silver platter in most spheres of life. I am almost certain that my village “Odzekurow” will never treat his “Town Crier” the shameful way Ms Tetteh was treated in this matter. Sister Hannah, we of “The African One-Timer” solidarity society salute you. We thank you for standing up for principles and demanding that we begin to learn to do one thing right in our country for a change! It is becoming too embarrassing.

I shall be back with my beaded gourd, God willing.

Naana Ekua Eyaaba has an overarching interest in the development of the African continent and Black issues in general. Having travelled extensively through Africa, the Black communities of the East Coast of the United States as well as London and Leeds (United Kingdom), she enjoys reading, and writes when she is irritated, and edits when she is calm. You can email her at [email protected] , or read her blog at https://naanaekuaeyaaba.wordpress.com/.