Don't Blame Mahama For Gh¢3.6m Rebranding Saga - Lydia Forson
Ghanaian actress-Lydia Forson has called on Ghanaians not to make President John Mahama an easy target in the raging controversy over the 3.6million Ghana cedis used in rebranding some Metro Mass buses.
In a facebook post, the actress also took a swipe at Smarttys Management and Productions, the company that did the rebranding and reportedly owned by fellow actress Selassie Ibrahim.
A whopping amount of GHc3,649,044 was paid by government to Smarttys for the rebranding of 116 MMT buses.
The amount reportedly drawn from the Petroleum Funds for 2015 and has courted intense public uproar.
The chief of staff Julius Debrah has ordered the attorney general to review the contract and furnish him with the findings by December 22.
In her post, Forson said, “this incident is a clear indication that, a lot of times, people amongst us are part of what’s really wrong with this country. They are our friends, fathers, mothers colleagues, people with no government position yet have the connections and power to make decisions that directly affect us all.
“They will sit with us and complain about the system and how bad things are, yet are part of the problem and not the solution. They get away with it, why? Because they don’t need our votes, they don’t work for us the people, they don’t have to be accountable to the nation and so on”.
Below is the full post by Lydia Forson
“I really don’t think it’s fair to blame the president for this whole metro bus branding fiasco.
The man has bigger decisions to make, I would hope, than decide what goes on government vehicles. However, he’s an easy target, why? Because it’s his face on the ballot paper. Not the minister, or government officials.
But we do expect that having voted him into power, he would be able to hire people capable of handling their jobs well, as they are a reflection on him. This incident is a clear indication that, a lot of times, people amongst us are part of what’s really wrong with this country.
They are our friends, fathers, mothers colleagues, people with no government position yet have the connections and power to make decisions that directly affect us all.
They will sit with us and complain about the system and how bad things are, yet are part of the problem and not the solution. They get away with it, why? Because they don’t need our votes, they don’t work for us the people, they don’t have to be accountable to the nation and so on.
Nope, they’re just individuals who happen to be lucky enough to work the system to their favour. We are the problem with what’s wrong with this country. Unless we change our general attitude, no president can come and save this country.
We need to hold civil servants, government officials , contractors etc more accountable. They are the ones who remain long after presidents have gone.
The sad thing about all of this is, when given the same opportunity, most of you will do the same or worse. I don’t want to throw accusations at anyone, especially since I don’t know all the facts.
But should it be true that a fellow creative, or so they claim, was behind this and actually cheated other creatives, it would be extremely heartbreaking.Especially knowing how under paid the creative arts industry is already. Because shouldn’t a creative person know better when it comes to branding, advertising etc? Here’s the difference between a greedy business person and a smart one;
The “SMARTY ” I mean “SMART” one would ask government for the contract to use the buses for advertisement. And then probably pay government a percentage of all profits made.
Now you may not get your millions immediately, but managed properly could easily become a lucrative business. And who knows in the future you could have you own buses solely for this purpose.
A greedy business person, is, well, let’s just say errr hmmmm, looking for the right word. Ah, there it is, ok so a greedy business person is just plain stupid. Because they’re so focused on the millions they can make fast, than the billions they can accumulate through time.
And there I thought we had Smarty, sorry I mean Smart people in this industry. And yes that was shade…. *Pause*
P.S. Dear Mahama, please don’t comment on this issue. You’re supposed to have bigger problems. If you trust the people you’ve appointed they should be able to get to the bottom of this and take appropriate action. If they don’t, then we will come for you, because you hired them.
Sincerely, The girl you love to hate *Play*
So that’s all folks, and remember, it’s never too late to get SMART”