He has literally been flooding the Modern Ghana Media Portal or Website with scores of articles, in the wake of the December 7, 2024 General-Election Victory of the President John “Ahmed Bola Tinubu” Dramani Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC). I have not had the chance to read any of them, except for the one on which this column is focused, titled “ Time For Accountability And Respect In Parliamentary Proceedings: A Call For A Presidential Travel Policy(Modernghana.com 1/31/25).
In the main, the author, Mr. Atitso Akpalu, describes himself as a “Retired Senior Citizen” and a resident of the Teshie-Nungua District of the Greater-Accra Metropolis. But what especially caught this writer’s attention was the fact that the author made absolutely no pretense to any originality vis-a-vis the suggestion of the immediate and the imperative need for the Mahama Presidency to take into serious consideration, the need for a cost-effective budgetary policy pertaining to official or ministerial travels in and out of the country.
He quickly points out that his proposals are based on examples that the author has directly drawn from official travel guidelines gleaned from the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Canada and the European nations at large. It would, of course, have also been even more fascinating and for a necessary balance, if Mr. Akpalu had also added to the mix, a few examples from such non-European but equally efficiently run governments and nations as Japan, China, South Korea, India, Singapore and at least a couple of countries from even the African Continent itself, where our people are in dire need of responsible leadership and good governance. For, trust me, there are quite a significant few countries right here in Continental Africa that are known and have been known to pursue far more efficient and cost-effective official travel policies than what pertains in our beloved Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana.
Even more significant to highlight here is the fact that this author’s attention was especially drawn to the promptly and the poignantly focused audience of Author Akpalu, in particular the recently named or appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, who gained especial notoriety and infamy during the previous Mahama government when the North-Tongu National Democratic Congress-sponsored Member of Parliament was a Deputy Minister for Education. For those of our readers who may not already be familiar with this million-times told story, as Deputy Education Minister and the Executive Arch-Lieutenant to Ghana’s present and very first female Vice-President, to wit, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Mr. Ablakwa, a frequent passenger of British Airways jetliners, was known to occupy whole rows of first-class seats whenever he jetted in and out of the country.
Which means that his every official travel abroad or outside the country cost Ghanaian taxpayers at least the same amount of money that it would have cost for at least three or four, first-class passengers to travel on the same flight. Now, the next most logical question to ask is this: Was Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa a first-rate or crackerjack Deputy Education Minister? Remember, it was about the same time that he was traveling on rows of first-class jetliner seats that Mr. Ablakwa was also hopping from one teacher-training college campus to another, callously and unconscionably telling teacher-trainees that the Mahama government was darn too strapped for cash to be able to continue to fulfill its obligation of paying them their age-old teacher-trainee allowances.
Translated into Economy or Business-Class Terms, what the foregoing means is that anytime that the longtime spokesman or spokesperson for the National Democratic Congress’ Parliamentary Caucus traveled abroad, either on official or unofficial assignments, Ghanaian taxpayers got slapped with a roundtrip bill or tab that could very well have covered the travel costs of at least 12 non-first-class passengers. The preceding unarguably “disturbing” state of affairs – our profound apologies to Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings and her Amen-Corner Supporters of Nation Democratic Congress party fanatics – is what makes Mr. Atitso Akpalu’s cost-effective travel proposals or suggestions or advice to the Mahama 2.0 Government all the more opportune and relevant.
On the latter count, we promptly register our great elation over the fact that somebody higher up at Jubilee House must have been paying sedulous attention to at least some of Mr. Akpalu’s obviously well-meaning proposals or advisory. Recently, for example, the President’s Chief-of-Staff, Mr. Julius Debrah, was widely reported by the media to have circulated a memorandum instructing all ministerial and executive appointees to seek clearance and approval with the Office of the Presidential Chief-of-Staff prior to embarking on any official travel abroad of any kind that was likely to be footed or underwritten by Ghanaian taxpayers. This is definitely a fiscal policy initiative in the right direction and one that is apt to make the Mahama 2.0 Government a sectorally significant improvement on all the previous Fourth-Republican governments, including the previous Mahama government (2012-2017).
Very likely, Mr. Akpalu also knows what Yours Truly already knows and has been writing about for quite a considerable while now. Which is why topmost on the list of the pertinent cabinet portfolios mentioned in Mr. Akpalu’s article is, you guessed right, the “Minister for Foreign Affairs Nominee.” Ultimately, though, what matters here more than anything else, in terms of the Mahama government’s publicly pledged determination to studiously pursue an enviable policy of fiscal discipline, is to ensure that this salutary and socioeconomically and politically progressive policy initiative permeates all aspects of Ghanaian society. It is incontestably the only way forward.
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
February 13, 2025
E-mail: [email protected]
