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Opinions of Saturday, 27 May 2017

Columnist: Kofi Thompson.

Open letter to Ghana's First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo

First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo

Your Excellency,

Surprising though it might be to you, you actually have it within
your power to help secure a second term for your dear husband, our
nation's leader, President Akufo-Addo.

There are a number of vital steps that if you encourage your husband
to take, will change the nature of our nation's politics permanently -
for the better - and make his position in Ghana's political world
unassailable.

Your Excellency, to begin with, you must act swiftly to prevent the
possibility of your husband suffering the political equivalent of
warzone-collateral-damage from arrant wrongdoing by members of his
extended family clan and yours.

To do so, you must get your husband to follow the example of former
President Rawlings.

It might interest you to learn that once upon a time, former
President Rawlings made it plain to all his relatives that if they
messed up, they would be on their own: and suffer the consequences of
their own foolishness by themselves - as he would not come to their
rescue under any circumstances. It worked a treat for him as it
happens.

Secondly, you must constantly remind your husband of the Asantehene's
friendly advice to him that he must never forget that it was to him
that voters gave the mandate to govern the Republic of Ghana - not
those around him in his inner circle and government.

In effect what the wise Asantehene was implying was that the
president's appointees serve at his pleasure - and only on condition
that they deliver the results he expected from them when he appointed
them to their positions in government.

Naturally, no one in Ghana expects your husband to usher in rule by
saints - for heaven is the only place where saints inhabit: not the
planet Earth.

However, he can occupy the moral high ground in our nation's politics
for the next eight years, if both of you publicly publish your assets
- even though there is no law compelling the two of you to do so.

That will strike a major blow against high-level corruption in Ghana -
since nothing else can pierce egregious grand-larceny's extra-hardened
armour so to speak.

Above all, when the two of you finally make your move to publicly
publish your individual assets, you must take the whole nation by
surprise - and, crucially, no one but the two of you must know that
you have indeed decided to do so.

Alas, if any of the leading figures in the New Patriotic Party (NPP)
and his inner circle get wind of such a decision by the two of you,
they will move heaven and earth to prevent you doing so - by coming up
with all manner of excuses as to why it shouldn't happen.

Ignore all of them, Your Excellency: For you will both be securing
your place in history if you publicly publish your assets - and will
earn the respect of the whole world on top of that too.

And wherever you travel officialy to in the world, you will find that
you will both experience virtually the same kind of admiration that
more or less the entire human race had for Nelson Mandela whiles he
was alive.

Doubtless, you will be besieged by many 'concerned' individuals from
your party and extended family clans when word about this missive to
you gets around - most of whom will try and convince you that it would
not be a wise move for you and your husband to publicly publish your
assets.

Ignore all of them, Your Excellency - for they are actually only
thinking of themselves and how such a move by you and your husband the
president will ruin their secret wealth creation agendas at Mother
Ghana's expense.

Finally, food for thought for you, Your Execellency: If former
President John Dramani Mahama and his wife Lordina, as well as his
brothers Edward and Ibrahim, and their respective spouses, had
publicly published their assets as some of us suggested they do, John
Mahama would still be President of the Republic of Ghana as we speak.
For sure. Such as life.

I wish you and your courageous husband well.

Thanks.