Pay Our Wives Ghanafoɔ, President Akufo-Addo stresses

My take home salary at the end of the month is not very pleasing for the pocket to smile about, yet still we have money to spare on citizens who occupy no offices or even hold official state positions in this country, a reality I cannot comprehend.

Indeed truly truly, his excellency the President and his Vice have gone far this time by trying to use state finance to sponsor their spouses as allowances. The constitution of Ghana clearly makes it clear that people who are supposed to receive salaries and allowances are those who hold offices and have been duly registered to take home salaries because of the work they do for the state which is not voluntary. These individuals are the only ones who have been mandated to be paid, and so it baffles me why the president breached article 71 of the constitution which clearly gives supreme authority to the president to name of not less than a five member committee on the advice of the council of state on the salaries payable to the Chief Justice and other Justices of the Superior court of judicature, the speaker, deputy speakers and members of parliament, the auditor general, chairman of the electoral commission, members of the national media commission and many others.

In the article it did not state that spouses of the president and the vice are to be paid upon setting a committee, but rather only spelled out the president and the vice. The president on the other side has really taken the constitution for granted and that has shown how weak the governance system in this country is, each and every one can do whatever he so likes and nothing is done about it.

On my part I think parliament has really failed Ghanaians because the job we gave to it so it can serve as a check on the executive has been misappropraitely handled. They sat down to listen to the committee and then approved of it, wow that is way below the belt. Come to think of it we are borrowing from other countries and yet still we are granting allowances to people whose existence does not generate us any productivity.

Not to take anything away from the first lady, she has been doing excellent in her foundation programs, but you and I know those foundations were all funded by the state. Besides the constitution does not say spouses of the president and vice should not work, it is only their husbands who are not allowed to hold any other positions apart from the ones they have been elected into. And so if they decide not to work it should be their own cup of tea and not our problem.

I might as well remind the president that he was the one who stood for election and not his wife, and again if he wants his wife to be paid he should give her an honourable position in his government. Their spouses only hold ceremonial functions in this country, which means they are not indebted to us to receive any funds from our purse. We borrow money from the United States, China, France and others but those countries do not have the capacity to pay the spouses of their presidents and vice presidents. What is President Akuffo Addo doing to the nation, he has truly placed this country at the mercy of destruction.

People work hard everyday but they receive meagre salaries but those who do not work have been given the mandate to take huge sums of money, this a high order of injustice which goes a long way to affirm the fact that Ghana is a lost country.

The popular saying "monkey de work baboon de chop" is perfect for this situation. Your excellency was this part of your vision for Ghana? You swore an oath, you have breached that oath, you promised to uphold the constitution but you have totally disregarded it. This act is a no no which must be kicked upon, our mothers are suffering in the markets, our grandmothers in their old ages are still working and you dare give salaries to your wives who have everything and do not need anything.

Such impudence on the part of the president.

By Adom Desmond