Prof Ocquaye: Mahama’s Scotland gallery sitting ‘disgraceful’

Ghana has become a laughing stock in the whole of England and in international circles after President John Mahama and his entourage were given a sitting space among ordinary people in Scotland’s parliament during his official working visit there last week, Ghana’s former High Commissioner to India Prof Mike Ocquaye has said.

President Mahama left Accra Wednesday March 16, 2016, for Glasgow to meet with the First Minister of Scotland and visit the Scottish parliament, where he observed First Minister’s Question Time and addressed a meeting of parliamentarians.

Pro-gay Minority Scottish MPs boycotted his speech in protest against Ghana’s anti-gay laws.

Accompanied by the first lady, Lordina Mahama, Foreign Minister Hanna S. Tetteh (MP), Communications Minister Dr Edward Omane Boamah and Education Minister Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, President Mahama also met leaders of Scotland’s political parties.

President Mahama is the second Ghanaian leader after President Jerry John Rawlings to visit Scotland. The visit provided an opportunity for the two countries to strengthen political and economic relations.

As part of his itinerary, President Mahama also met the Ghanaian community and addressed a business forum and the University of Aberdeen also conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) (Honoris Causa) degree on him.

Prof Ocquaye, however, told Ekow Mensah-Shalders in an interview on Monday March 21 that: “The whole thing appeared to have been done in indecent haste just so that our president, the first gentleman of our good land, would go to Scotland and be embarrassed in their parliament. Only also to get just a doctorate degree?”

In his estimation, Mr Mahama was debased by the Scottish parliament as well as the University of Aberdeen as far as the manner in which he was treated was concerned. “…In fact I did not also like even the nature of the ceremony. Who was that woman who gave the degree to the president? These things are done according to certain protocol. Where was the Vice Chancellor of the university? Where was the chancellor of the university? Chancellors in Britain are prominent people. All those people should be there to present the degree, not some registrar or maybe deputy registrar. Who was that lady? You see, in this country, we are taking things for granted, no wonder people, too, abuse us abroad.”

The former second deputy speaker of parliament chastised and blamed Ms Tetteh, Ghana’s mission in the UK, as well as the advance party that prepared the grounds for the visit of the president, for the shabby treatment given to Mr Mahama, which, to him, had brought shame and disgrace to the entire country.

“When the president was going to the parliament, did the Minister of Foreign Affairs know in advance where the president was going to sit? Or we don’t know and we don’t care? Did the High Commissioner – the president’s and Ghana’s representative in Britain – care to go and expect where the president will seat? This is protocol. I did it when President Kufuor was coming to India…this way of doing government business is disgracing Ghana. And then our president was found in the gallery. Ask President Rawlings’ aide, 15 years ago when President Rawlings visited that same chamber, he did not sit in the gallery! He sat by the speaker. Other African leaders have sat by the speaker. And under the Commonwealth system, every head of state who visits a parliament sits by the speaker, why did they decide to humiliate our president? And why did we accept it?” Prof Ocquaye wondered.

He said the High Commissioner, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the advanced party “must be made to account for the shame,” adding that: “…The gallery is for everybody. Even if a mad man visits parliament, he can go and sit at the gallery…this is unprecedented, so, you ask yourself: ‘Was this thing not done in haste just to go and give our president some degree ‘shabo shabo’ and come back?’ And for that matter, [they] added a few things that have brought disgrace to Ghana…it’s a matter of protocol, it’s a matter of security, it’s a matter of interstate respectability. So, our president cannot just go anywhere and sit anywhere….it’s a very serious matter because our president and our whole state of Ghana has been disgraced this way, [and], in fact, we’ve become a laughing stock. It’s being said abroad, the whole of England,” Prof Ocquaye added.