Get back to work JAK, barbecue time is over.

In every one's lifetime, when success is chalked it calls for celebration no matter how big or small it is as it is done to commemorate the occasion. Therefore haven gone throw trials and tribulations as a president of the country for eight years, there was no mistake for former president J.A. Kufuor to celebrate his success.

Whether he celebrated in a big class or he chose to celebrate it in the quiet by sitting with his family to some few barbecue in his residence, at least he has celebrated his success as a former president.

No one has heard of him celebrating his success anyway as it has not been in the news or reported by any media house. But there is no way the old man will not celebrate his success in office haven gone through a lot of thinking, heckling from the then opposition party NDC, the ordinary Ghanaian including you and me all the time complaining of problems and calling on him to solve which gave him a lot of gray hair as a result of too much thinking.

You know what, maybe he decided to do it in a quiet since we are too critical and will read politics into his celebration saying he was spending the nation money he stole whiles in office. But being too christian and for that matter a Presbyterian as I know, by all means he might have gone to offer thanks to the lord in his church after haven handed over power to his successor president Atta Mills.

That one I can challenge because I am not remembering him of the agony he went through but when he escaped that fearful accident, he went to offer thanks to the lord for haven saved his life and it was on the news and if he has not gone back to thank God for his life after coming out from office then he need to be reminded to do so because it is important before the lord.

But celebration or no celebration, the gentle giant as he is fondly called by many Ghanaians must be reminded to get back to work. This time not carrying himself about as a sitting president to create confusion in the system as someone is currently doing. But choose different areas where he can let his experience and expertise in handling issues be bought to bear on the country.

In Canada and other developed worlds, time consciousness is very important at work places where one needs to punch in and out of his reporting and closing from work in the time machine. This is to ensure that no staff cheat the company or slack behind. Again for workers to feel at ease and be happy to work with their heart, the executives throw barbecues on Fridays where nice foods are served.

Here after the actual time, the supervisor comes round to shout get back to work, barbecue time is over just to make sure that no one slack behind time since the one is paid according to the time he works certified by the supervisor. Now we need to tell Mr. J.A.Kufuor, that the celebration of his success in office is over and that we need him to get back to work where he will bring change in so many areas.

He can form a non governmental organization to seek for the well being of farmers, the disabled, students who have completed school and can not find find jobs, transport owners and the problems they face in their their profession which is bad roads and transport fares, chieftaincy disputes in most of our traditional areas that are putting development programmes on hold and help solve them.

Take Mr. Jimmy Carter for instance, just after bowing out of office as the president of America, he formed an NGO, to go to the troubled world and support those who have been afflicted with conflict, struck with hanger and disaster and he has stayed out totally from politics. Yes when the country's present leaders are short of directions as to how to solve a problem, they reach out to him but in a respectable or better for me to say in a diplomatic way and he also offers his opinion and trust Mr.Barack Obama, to be using them because all that he wants is the country's development but not credit to who did it.

Many secondary school students want to learn from our leaders and they could be able to do so through speech and prize giving days, our farmers want to learn new technologies in farming and they could learn from ex-president Kufuor and others.

Visiting serious accident spots by president Kufuor and sharing ideas with the drivers and the need to put things in right position to solve the problem will go down well with the drivers by alleviating the fear in them.

Many of ours are proud of his appointment to serve on three international humanitarian bodies which tells the whole world that his rich experience as a great leader has been taken note of and the need to use him so why are we not using him?

Are we waiting for him to file away like that of the late grand father Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, where a long rich tribute was read for him before we will blame ourselves for not haven tapped his experience?

As the former president is being urged to get back to work in humanitarian way to help raise the standard of living in Ghana, the present government is also being advised not to harass him for false charges but use him for the good of the nation.

When we realize the need to use our former presidents well, when one is a sitting president he will not be entertaining fears as to how he will be treated when out of office therefore stealing state funds.

It does not mean someone has stolen state funds anyway. But the way things are going, we are creating the opportunity for up coming heads of states to stash their pockets heavily before they leave office otherwise they would be disgraced and that is not how we should be pushing for.

Look at American president Mr. Barack Obama, he is not wasting time to talk about former president George Bush's past, he has identified areas where there are problems and contacted persons whom he think together with him can fix things properly and indications are right there for every one to see that he is currently putting things in position.

You have not forgotten Mr. Nelson Mandela I believe. After the struggle to get South Africa the needed independence with others, he stepped down for others to take over and now he is being extolled for that. The country never does anything without him sitting at the center stage which to me is a great honour they are giving him and they deserve to be praised for that. What are we doing as Ghanaians?Mistreating our former heads of state?

Ghanaians need to learn from these things and let the whole wide world know that yes democracy started from Africa which Ghana forms part of.

Let us encourage the former president to take up certain duties where he can bring change in the youth, security, commercials, secretariats, civil servants, authorities and many more by inviting him to our functions as guest speaker and by so doing we will be doing ourselves good and not regret when he visits his ancestors untimely by the way we are treating him now.
End Story.

Credit: Stephen Quaye [teemagi2003@yahoo.com]

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