President's Office Flooded

Yesterday, the President's office at the State House in Accra was rendered inhabitable for a while.

The suite the President uses as his office, together with adjoining suites and corridors were flooded and at around 11.00 a.m., when the president is usually either at his desk doing his paper work or meeting visitors, workers were still frantically trying to drain the water and vacuum the place dry.

For a while, it seemed like a losing battle because as they drained, the water kept dripping from the roof.

The flooding was caused by a faulty water tank on the building, which released hundreds of litres of water into the presidential office suite complex.

The water dripped all the way down to the ground floor reception where the President normally receives big delegations. When The Accra Mail arrived on the scene, plastic buckets, and kitchenware were all over the floor just like in any ordinary impoverished household with a leaking roof, catching the rainwater.

The workers seemed embarrassed by it all and shook their heads all the while as if to say, "look what twenty years of PNDC/NDC have done to our country."

The magnitude of how state property has been run down by "the decade that stopped the decay" is unfolding by the day and yesterday's presidential flood was just another example of what big problems Kufuor has inherited.

Due to the way floor rugs and carpets smell after soaking water, unless very good professional cleaners are called in, the President may not be able to work there for some time.

The entire State House complex, which houses the President's office, Parliament, State Protocol and the State Banquet Hall are in such a state of disrepair that it has now become an embarrassment to the dignity of the state of Ghana