Is It Right To House Former Presidents.....

When They Already Have Their Own Houses?

By Otchere Darko

Introduction: This article is not a reaction to, but a flow from the following two recent headlines by two gentlemen who may have good reasons for making them. It will not, therefore, be right for me to react to them. It will, however, be perfectly alright for Ghana to reflect on the issue at stake.

(1) “Spio fires Mills for leaving Rawlings homeless..... .....
According to Dr. Garbrah, the Mills government has not made attempts to house the former President nine months after his house was gutted by fire.” [General News of Tuesday, 9 November 2010 Source: Citifmonline]

(2) “Stop talking about my housing situation – Rawlings.... .......
“Former president Jerry John Rawlings has demanded the cessation of discussions relating to his accommodation.” [General News of Wednesday, 10 November 2010 Source: Joy Online]

President Mills has been under on-and-off pressure to provide some ESB entitlements to our two former Presidents, Mr Rawlings whose State house at Ridge got burnt in unknown circumstances on Valentine’s Day this year; and Mr Kufuor whose whole ESB entitlements have been a subject of debate ever since he completed his presidency. One ESB entitlement enjoyed by these two former Presidents which, in my opinion, is most detestable, controversial and difficult to understand is the provision to them of State houses, despite the fact that the two are known to have their own houses in Accra. In spite of his usual nature of keeping his assets secret and anonymous, Mr Rawlings is believed to own an unoccupied but fully completed multiple-bedroom single-storey bungalow-type estate situated behind East Legon. And Mr Kufuor has always had a “posh” house at the Airport Residential area where he has been living with his wife since leaving office and which he has never ever disowned.

What I am unable to comprehend, which, I guess, many other readers too don’t understand either, is why the State should provide accommodation to two retired public officials who already have their own houses which are as good as any State-owned house. Rawlings’ alleged East-Legon house is difficult to view from outside because of the fact that it seems to be a one single-storey bungalow-type and, also, because it is concealed by a high fence wall and closely spaced perimeter shade trees. [I was shown the building from outside its high walls in 2004, at which time it was nearing completion]. Kufuor’s Airport house has always been one of the best in the Airport area. So, why should we try to pamper our former Presidents by giving them official accommodation in Accra, when they have their own, and considering the thousands of Ghanaian citizens in Accra who are homeless and sleep rough every day after their hard day’s work?

I wrote at this site some time earlier and asked the two former Presidents to give up parts of their benefits for the sake of the millions of poor Ghanaians who are suffering. Giving up part of their constitutional rights, such as their rights as former Presidents to be given State houses, would be a practical and better way for them to demonstrate their “sense of responsibility to the poor”. *Mr Rawlings should not forget what he alluded to in 1979 when he referred to the use of clean water by the rich to run off their water-closets, while the poor could not have such clean water to drink. That situation is not worse than the situation where a former President leaves his own house unoccupied, while asking the State to accommodate him in a State house. Accordingly, it is about time Mr Rawlings demonstrated his practical concern for the poor, by telling Ghanaians that he no longer wants to be given a State house, and that he is going to live in his own house. *And Mr Kufuor, too, should not forget the bad name his Danquah-Busia tradition has for decades been associated with and the need for him, [therefore as the only member of his tradition to get the full opportunity to wash off that filthy image of their tradition], to declare that he no longer wants to be given a State house and, through that, to show Ghanaians that he and his tradition know the practical meaning of their “[private] property-owning democracy”. Rawlings and Kufuor, and for that matter all future retired Ghanaian Presidents, should know that the Ghandis, the Nehrus, the Lincolns, and the Kennedys, whose names have long outlived their own actual mortal being, achieved their political greatness because of their big “human hearts”, and not because of their material acquisitions.

Conclusion: Ghana should stop pampering its former Presidents, and think more about the millions of its poor citizens who struggle everyday to find food for themselves and their dependents, and who often go to bed on empty stomachs and without any fault of their own. We are a poor nation and should not try to look bigger than we are. The Constitutional Review Commission should use the on-going constitutional review to cut off these stifling ESB entitlements that have been piled on former Presidents while the average Ghanaian lives in abject poverty; while children go to school under trees; and while the country continues to borrow heavily from abroad to make ends meet.

Source: Otchere Darko. [This writer is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity” and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt, and domineering politics of NDC and NPP; actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “third parties”; and opposes a two-party only system of democracy in Ghana.]