Floods: Coments On President Kufuor's Absence

QUESTION: Should President Kufuor return home to manage the govt's response to the floods?

From: Dominic Akyea

There is a disaster situation at home and it is unwise for father of the house to abandon it. The situation is indeed a disaster and one would have expected to remain in Ghana and mobilize massive support both internally and externally. Unfortunately, he abandoned ship. This is not the mark of a good leader. It is very regretable.

Abanga abdulai

The presence of the president in ghana will not make any difference.he has already put in place the necessary structures like the Ministrial task force and funds have been voted for the disaster.A good leader is one that is able to provide leadership even in his absence.Kofuor is not like those who do public germick by appearing to be doing work when no work is being done.People should remember no one can be at all place at the same time.

Adu Amankwaa

I think the president should cut his trip short and return to see personally the extent of damage to reassure the people of government's care and support for their plight. That is one of the surest means of assessing a government's commitment to the people who voted it into power.

Emmanuel Agyeman

President Kufuor have more capable personnel to manage this situation at this short period of his absence: The very-efficient Vice President Aliu Mahama and many other ministers.

From denis asiem

I believe the prez priority is the populace and he owes them a responsibility to attend to them in adverse times such as floods. I can site a 1000 situations of western leaders having to cut short holidays and official appointments to attend to emergencies at home. pls get your priorities right JAK.

Anonymous

The President already went to the area to access the extent of the disaster and rightly declared a state of emergency. What more should he do after delegating people to see to the restoration of normal life? The President knows that it would take more input for the country's citizens to have better standards of living hence his trip abroad to source for investment for the huge bauxite deposits we have. It is time for Ghanains to stop playing politics with this disaster and rally behind the government. NDC was in power for all this while and could not develop this part of the country and yet the party claims the northern sector is a strong hold. How I wish Ghanaians would never vote for them!!!

Concerned Citizen

The president's departure at the time of flooding in the north show how insensitive he is to his people; crass irresponsibility of a leader. My question is: Did we elect him to travel around the world or what? Hope he can change these last days of his party.

mr.farouk

pres. kuffuor is not much concern about his country and the people in it.whether they should be dead or alive.

Demoray

A good leader will have appointed his vice or someone else for the trip.

koo Nimo

governance works on structure not by personalities. Leadership means getting things done. Kufuor has set up structures with responsibillity for the accomplishment of objectives.

Asiamah

I think the president visited the affeected areas before making his journey. We have NADMO, Inter-Ministrial Disaster Relief Committee (IMDRC) and district task force teams to oversee activities and other operations in the distressed areas.

Obed Avoka

I think it is very unfair for the president to be out of the Country at a time he is to respond to the cry of Northern Ghana. But this actually does not surprises me. The North has experienced a lot of neglection in the hands of the present government. President Kufuor should justify his reason for living the Country to us to make us more relaxed about the situation since it will mean we can depend on his efficiency

kwabena Oslo

how has his presence or abscense affected the floods. i dont think his being at home would change anything. after all are the officers of NADMO and other administrative heads in the affected areas also on vacation. this is not a valid developmental question in the first place. please ask better questions. thank you.

James

I am dismayed at our attitude of the president being there throughout all problems. He runs the country and has delegated officials to various positions to manage and inform him if there is any problem. He has seen the situation, declared an emergency there and has set the ball rolling on relief for the unfortunate victims. what else will he do if he is here-should he be seen in a boat distributing relief materials?
there are agencies doing all these and he has to attend to other duties. If the floods had happened when he was away then obviously one would have expected him to return immediately.
lets all grow up and stop criticizing the poor president when he is doing his job.
Ghana will be a lot better if we all put our hands to the plough rather than becoming "all righteous people "who are so quick to point accusing fingers.

Kwasi mensah

It seems this President doesnt have Ghanaians at heart. He doesnt care what happened in the country. Have you forgotten he left the country for holidays when the whole country was in darkness. Hmm.

donald

I think he is just incentitive to Ghanaians. at large. He lacks care. that is the point.

Eric

I don't understand the fuse people are making about Kufour's absence. Ghana government is not a one man government. Asking Kufour to be there is like saying that u have no confidence in the ministers and MPs. Grow up Ghanaians.

Reuben

This is the first time in the history of the world the leader declared "war" and left town. In his absence, where is the command centre for the emergency he declared? When world leaders want to send their sympathy to Ghanaians, would they have to call the Canadian Prime Minister?

Kwabena Ofosu-Appiah

In as much as it can conveniently be explained away that the physical presence of the president is not needed for certain acts to be effected, it must not be lost on him the powers at his disposal. For now I strongly believe one of two things, that he does not fully appreciate the executive powers at his disposal or that he simply does not give a hoot!

Anonymous

The President have his men on the ground working to solve the problem after he has been there himself to establish the devastating effect of the flood.He may other things to do, but the overseas travels are becomming too much.

EK

There are other capable Ministers to manage the situation. The President should not be here all the time

John

It´s too shameful for a president to continue outside the country whilst some of the citizens are dead and others suffering from this kind of disaster.If he really cares for all Ghanaians independent of which part of the country they live and of their culture and religionthen he needs to be present to personally see and direct the control of the situation.In any case, this tells how much the peolpe we vote into power care for us.May the souls of those whom have passed away RIP and millions of condolence to the affected ones.Thanks to God some foreign countries care more about Ghanaians and about the situation and are offering thier help.

DANIEL K. ASSENSOH

Simply put, it is just sad that people pick on the president on any issue. Why should the president return home to manage government's response to the floods?

To me the most important question everyone should ask him/herself is "So far, how effectively has the government managed the flood problem, more specifically how have the victims been treated?" From what we read on the cyber space, I will say 'KUDOS' to the government and the entire nation of Ghana. We also drop our hats for our global friends and neighbours.

Much as we regret the disaster and its effects on our brothers and sisters, parents, and our fellow citizens in the northern and upper regions, it is obvious the management of the disaster is far better than similar ones in the past.

Back to the president's involvement: I read the president visited the disaster zone for first hand knowledge of the intensity of the problems caused by the floods, and also to console the berieved families. This is a caring president. Armed with this knowledge, the president can execute his noble duty of directing and supervising his government to effectively take care of the victims, and also plan for infrastructure and other repairs.

Now the question is SHOULD THE PRESIDENT BE PHYSICALLY PRESENT BEFORE HE CAN DIRECT AND SUPERVISE HIS GOVERNMENT? In this technologically developed global village era, I'm sure many people will answer a big NO!! to this question.

It is very good to develope a broader spectrum of how we look at situations because the world is constantly changing. If we don't change with time the time will pass by us and leave us behind. At the end of the day we will be the losers because we decided to stay stationary whist the world was moving. The president has so much on his plate and effective time management is essential on his part. We should be proud that he is good at it.

Vivian

It is his responsibility to ensure that the nation is safe before any other thing that is of personal interest to him. It is not the first time that the nation that is suffering losses when he left the country.