Musings From Kwabre--Episode Two

So I was in my small corner thinking of what might have become of Kwabre if we had a President from Kwabre. It is not out of place for me to think so because Akua Donkor, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and Odike all hail from Kwabre. Just as I was entertaining the thought, news broke that Nana Addo and his National security apparatus are sacking his neighbors because the President has refused to use his official residence which is the Flagstaff House.

It then dawned on me that just maybe Kwabre is better off without a President because who knows if the President from Kwabre might decide to use his or her resident in Kwabre instead of the official residence. It would only mean that we might be asked to relocate and be compensated with a token that is enough to last just a few days under these harsh economic conditions.

I have been a guest on the best Hausa socio-political talk show in Ghana, Anche Anche on Zuria FM and very often than not, the host admonishes Ghanaian leaders to THINK, THINK and THINK! In this instance, I cannot but agree with him that our leaders are failing to do that. The people paid with tax payer's money to THINK are comfortable with doing irrational things and those doing the paying are also refusing to THINK!

Why on earth will the country spend millions of tax payer's money to construct a benefitting edifice for the President's comfort and security yet the President will rather choose to stay in his father's house and again use taxpayer's money to renovate and maintain it for the same comfort and security the official residence was to provide? As if that refusal to THINK is not insulting enough, his neighbors are being asked to leave and are being compensated with meagre amounts at the expense of the taxpayer. This is as ridiculous as it is unacceptable!

No amount of explanation can justify this clear and obvious refusal to THINK by people who are supposed to know better. The Security of the Nation is in tatters and all that National Security can do is to further deprive people off their livelihood. Their only crime is being neighbors to someone they probably voted for as President. This is absurd and someone somewhere must start THINKING! We elected you to do the THINKING because we are too busy trying to cope with the high standard of living so respectfully, start doing the THINKING and do it CRITICALLY! The status quo is supposed to change because it is preposterous to do the same old things and expect different results.

I have read, heard and seen excerpts of interviews granted by the affected persons and I can feel their plight. The haphazard approach the government adopted in the fight against galamsey is the same approach being adopted in this unfortunate instance. Even if they ought to be ejected, couldn't their neighbor, the President had made alternative arrangements for their relocation rather than hand them these tokens in the name of compensation while being left to their fate? Is this the 'CHANGE, AN AGENDA FOR JOBS' your manifesto promised?

When Doctors in Canada are rejecting salary increments in the interest of patients, here in Ghana our President is putting his comfort ahead of the plight of his neighbors all in the name of National Security. The President, his vice and his 110 friends and family members should start THINKING about the people who gave them their jobs and with whose sweat they have comfortable offices and drive in luxurious V8s.

The President owes it a duty to his neighbors to do something about their plight but until then before you settle in a neighborhood, make sure that none of your neighbors has Presidential ambitions.

It's yours truly,
Kwabreba Sawa