One Visit Too Many

As someone who defended the need for our president to travel as a reputable salesman for our country, for purposes of bilateral economic assistance and the promotion of international goodwill, I am now left with the uncanny realization that our honourable president, Mr. J.A. Kuffour travels far too much, and in some instances quite unnecessarily.
Upon assuming office in January 2002, it was deemed expedient for the president to embark on these trips in order to promote Ghana as a prime area of investment. When the president traveled to far-flung areas as Japan; Malaysia; USA; Britain; France; Canada; South Africa; and Germany; they were done with a view to enticing investors who wished to take advantage of a very friendly investment climate promised by the government.
It was also necessary for the president to pay visits to our neighbours to further cement bilateral relations, and promote common goals, such as regional stability. To date, our president has paid countless visits to countries such as Nigeria; Ivory Coast; and Senegal; in pursuit of that cherished goal.
Most of these visits have encountered criticism and even ridicule, especially from the members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), who argue that the president ought to spend as much time attending to the multifarious problems which the same NDC bequeathed to his government. I think, the president would do well to now pay attention to these criticisms and suggestions.
In the first 18 months of his presidency, Mr. Kufour reportedly traveled out of Ghana, 40 times. Now, that is a lot of travel. Much of the presidential trips, could in fact, have been done by either the foreign minister; or the sector minister, as the case may be.
The more time the president spends junketing around the globe, the lesser time he has traveling around Ghana to interact with ordinary people, gauge public opinion, and witness first hand, whether his government's policies are having the required effect on the nation, and the people. It is a fact that the president traveled the length and breath of Ghana on his road to the presidency. I hope it is not due to road-weariness that he has become averse to visiting his constituents, the way he used to do. The president must be reminded that when it comes time to seeking re-election, the electorate will be more convinced on what benefits accrued from these numerous foreign trips, rather than what a good job he did merely selling Ghana to foreign investors.
Nor are some of these trips quite necessary. A perfect example is the trip to Paris, France, to attend the 22nd Franco-African summit, scheduled for February 20 and 21, 2003. The ostensible agenda, is for France to work together with the assembled delegates from 52 African countries towards achieving peace in Ivory Coast and Congo; as well as a discussion of the Iraqi crisis!
But the meeting also coincides with France's eroding influence in Europe. This reality gnaws the very self-conscious French. While France has taken on a leading role in opposing a possible US military strike against Iraq, France is irked at the opposition she has met from some European countries, especially those of the former Communist bloc, whose pro-American behaviour the French president, Jacques Chirac chided as being ‘childish' and ‘dangerous'.
For the French, any indication that France is losing influential role they fancy for their country, sends the government into a tailspin. To redress such anomaly, the French seek outside influences to buttress their prestige. In 1884, for example, the French sought to compensate for their military defeat and humiliation by Prussia in 1871, by plunging headlong into imperial pursuit. Jules Ferry the Prime Minister of France in 1884, provided ample justification for a vast extension of the French colonial empire, thus: either France will acquire colonies and become a first-rate colonial power; or sink to a third and fourth rate power in Europe.
In the new European Union, France can no longer throw its weight about, in the manner she did when France defied world opinion and tested her nuclear bombs in Africa in the 1960's, with all the attendant health risks to Africans from the effects of nuclear radiation. By successfully lassoing African leaders to a neo-colonial conference in Paris, Monsieur Jacques Chirac wants to impress upon world opinion that France matters! And, he thumped his nose at France's traditional bogeyman Britain, by inviting dictator Robert Mugabe!!
So, president Kufour has gone to France to join in a discussion of how to solve civil wars in Ivory Coast, and Congo, two countries where France supported corrupt dictators in the past! It bears repeating that Mr. Laurent Gbagbo, the man whose presence in Paris, would ensure a modicum of success at the meeting refused to attend. He obviously realized that he faced more pressing problems at home, that needed attending to.
It does not matter that our president has been selected as the point-man by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to mediate the peace process in Ivory Coast. There is little justification for yet another trip to Paris coming at the heels of a just-ended trip to the French capital for the same purpose!
Mr. Kufour has recently met with Mr. Gbagbo, and with the rebel leaders, in Accra. He can now delegate his foreign minister, or a respected Ghanaian diplomat such as Dr. S.K.B. Asante (that is Susubiribi Krobea Asante, the Paramount Chief of Asokore), to continue the negotiations, while the president attends to matters affecting Ghana; while keeping in mind that the Ivory Coast imbroglio could create a refugee crisis on our border.
In the post-9-11 world, countries such as Ghana ought to begin to seriously think about putting in place the needed infrastructure in terms of good roads; working telephone network; a dependable public safety regime; reduction in government red-tape mentality; control of official corruption; and a tax regime that would really entice Ghanaians and foreigners alike to invest in the country. What use is investment promotion when the investor cannot get a telephone connection for months?
The president touched on some of these matters in his recent Sessional Address to Parliament. He also advised Ghanaians that this year will be one of tough choices that would require more sacrifices from Ghanaians. One such tough choice is the increase in petrol which has had a snowball effect with price increases on other commodities and services. Ghana's predicament is bound to be adversely affected by the expected US war against Iraq, which will undoubtedly lead to increase in the price of oil.
The president can mitigate public perception of his government's aloofness and insensibility in the era of ‘tough choices', by cutting down on these trips to a minimum; and also, by reducing the public spectacle of the fleet of cars in a convoy, which ritually accompanies the president and his ministers whenever they travel around, and about. To the average man on the street, such spectacle registers a negative image of excesses in a time of belt-tightening.
Mr. J.A. Kufour cannot be accused of not doing enough to promote Ghana as a haven for investors. But I submit that it is now time for the president to visit the home front; and pay particular attention to the home front.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of Ghanaweb.