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Second Lady's Chalk Politics

By Daily Guide
Editorial Second Lady's Chalk Politics
JUL 21, 2015 LISTEN

Madam Matilda Amissah-Arthur could not have received a plaudit from her husband, the Vice President, last week when she returned from Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region.

Not when she embarrassed him with her undiplomatic remarks about over-pampered Ghanaians and an unsettling response to a poor deprived school headmistress' request for chalk for her teachers.

'We won't give you chalk today, we won't give you chalk tomorrow,' resonated so loudly across the country that it was hard not to go over it repeatedly.

It was a disaster of a mission to the Eastern Region deprived school and nobody appears to sympathise with her for the painful backlash she got for her bad tongue. We can bet that even the propagandists have turned their backs on her, given the possibility of their being infected with the contagion.

Just what informed her acerbic conduct is beyond our ken. Suffice it to conclude that it is the arrogance which comes with a sudden elevation, one unexpected.

Although she apologised for her poor performance, so un-second lady-like, the apology did not exhibit adequate remorse, especially as she sought to lay the blame on the media for exaggerating the whole performance or even embellishing it for effect, if you like.

She as a person, we are afraid, is not regretful about her hubris. Sounding as though she is part of the executive, she could not have put up a worse performance when she told the chalk and teaching aids-starved headmistress that Ghanaians are over-pampered.

We have tried to be moderate in our reaction in contrast to what transpired on the airwaves when the second lady crossed the red line of public speaking.

So much has been said about Matilda's poor human relations that those who have had the misfortune of serving in one form or the other in their residence do not pray to return there. We have always dismissed these as exaggerations but now we have to review our position.

Be it as it may, the second lady's handlers must do extra work on her, prior to her hosting any public functions. They must especially let her know that not all that comes to mind must be spewed out as remarks.

Ghanaians are yet to accept her apology: they are peeved that she thinks erroneously that government is doing them a favour.

Governance, if she cares to know, is about those elected into office providing basic necessities to the citizenry, some of which are electricity, water and of course, chalk. To think that such responsibilities are favours is to exhibit ignorance of the highest order.

We do not want to believe, as many are doing, that her position that Ghanaians are over-pampered is a reflection of what she and her husband think about their compatriots.

If that is what government itself is thinking about Ghanaians, then it is unfortunate and we find that regretful.

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