It seems to have a root in the African’s penchant for prestige. The African, yes, not just the Ghanaian. The Time magazine made some fun of the African politician in 2009, citing an instance from one of the continent’s lights: Kenya.
“For years, one of the defining images of the African political elite has been the silhouette of a figure sitting behind tinted glass or drawn curtains in the backseat of a luxury car. The car’s model may vary, and the colour too, but nine times out of 10 the make is Mercedes-Benz. In Swahili, which is spoken throughout eastern Africa, members of the ruling class are even known by the nickname wabenzi, or ‘people of the Benz.’” That was the Time of November 18, 2009. In Ghana and much of Africa today, the expensive Merc has actually given way to the more expensive Toyota Landcruiser.
What is there in cars for Afro politicians?
Ability to effectively tour the constituency, yes. But, also the status symbol. Pride. The special attraction the Barracuda, Tundra, Landcruiser and other posh cars have for sophisticated ladies. The perception that, yes, as a politician he has now arrived! But, why do Blacks so much crave for Benz, BMW, Toyota V8, Mitsubishi Pajero and other expensive cars, while their Asian, European and American counterparts are less fascinated? The tale of a Ford Expedition is still fresh in your memory, I presume, so let us not spend time on it. But, do you remember what infuriated the university students in 1984 to part ways with the PNDC they had given unalloyed support to from 1982? The supposed leftist self-reliant junta swerved the revolutionary agenda to align with the capitalist Breton Woods and the West. The Rawlings government led by Daniel Francis Annan entered into agreements which ordered sleek Nissan and Pajero cross-country vehicles from Japan so much to the irk of the National Union of Ghana Students and the revo boys who perverted the Provisional National Defence Council into Pajero, Nissan Distribution Corporation.
According to the 2009 Time report, when the Kenyan regime moved to save the taxpayer some $27 million, by asking that ministers, their deputies and permanent secretaries turn in their ubiquitous Mercedes Benz cars for Volkswagen Passats, which not only cost about two-thirds the price of a new Benz in Kenya, but were also cheaper to run and maintain; there came a bombshell. Some ministers had the audacity to refuse to turn in their luxury wheels. “We are not schoolchildren to be given uniforms in the form of Passats,” Immigration Minister, Otieno Kajwang, for instance, retorted. In Ghana, our ministers, municipal chief executives and MPs all plead that their terrain is rugged and need the expensive cross-country autos to traverse them; everybody knows that most of the time, they run the vehicles on asphalt in the capitals. People just make expensive cars part of what they consider their status symbol. Our people dread lowering their perceived status symbol. Once they ride in a Landcruiser, a Mercedes, a Jaguar, Pajero or a sport utility vehicle, they vow never to climb down or ease into a Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, or Tata; not to suggest a Kantanka! And, that is why they want to go home with the state car. It is the character of the Ghanaian, African occupying a position of prestige. It is not one particular party’s culture. That is why both our New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress are equally guilty of scrambling for and stealing of state automobiles.
A Ghanaian called Kofi Atta, who is domiciled in the United Kingdom, filed an opinion piece on the net recently. In the article, he noted that every eight years, Ghanaians are treated to a reprisal of vehicle seizures by the new government on the former political appointees of the immediate past government. “This happened when President Agyekum Kufuor took over from President Jerry John Rawlings as well as when the late Atta Mills took over from President Kufuor and it is now happening after President Akufo-Addo took over from President Mahama.” He also recalls what happened in 2009 “when the then former foreign minister under the Kufuor government, now President Akufo-Addo’s, private vehicle was seized in Rambo-style operation.” The same thing is repeated after every eight additional years of constitutional democratic experience. I think I remember it took Mr. Akufo-Addo’s University of Ghana mate, Atta Mills’s, personal intervention and apology to end the 2009 embarrassment. That vehicle did not belong to the state. But, in most cases, the vehicles have been stolen, or – to say it mildly – taken away by the outgoing political appointees.
How many cars are missing now?
In the current rumpus, no one knows the correct answer to the question above. According to the Administrator General, who has responsibility for such matters, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government informed him there were 678 vehicles as follows: State Protocol – 67, General Administration – 41 and Very Very Important Personalities’ – 570. Contrary to this figure is a statement by the former Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Johnny Osei Kofi, that there were 641 automobiles; a deficit of 37. As if that is not confusing enough, the current Chief of Staff’s Office comes to say a handing-over document it posses enumerates 426 vehicles, with only 218 parked at the Presidency. These comprised 173 serviceable and 45 unserviceable vehicles. And, from that document, the current regime concludes that 218 are missing, and therefore sets up a taskforce to locate and retrieve the missing vehicles. Well, the work of the taskforce has been in part clumsy and embarrassing like many similar taskforces in the past. But that is even beside the point. The culture of buying many expensive automobiles in the name of the state and how they are handled and disposed of remain the core issue to review.
Needless to say, the practice is objectionable. Embarrassing. It can get disgraceful. It becomes scandalous if honourable men or women peel carpets, yank door and window blinds from state bungalows and carry them away. It gets absurd if the only reason you can fathom for these is that the perpetrators are bent on pretending to still remain the Speakers, Ministers, MPs, and MMDCEs they’ve been relieved of.
In a way, the state engenders or condones this illegality. Else, how come a prime Sakumono land is acquired for construction of flats for workers. The case is made that MPs too are workers who deserve to be allocated units. The case is made that MPs need decent accommodation at one vantage point to get to and from Parliament fast to represent their constituents scattered far and near. Just four or eight years after the houses are given to the honourable reps, we are told the units must be sold to them as part of their ex-gratia. So, failed MPs, defeated MPs, retired MPs, deceased MPs now own houses at a location deemed ideal for people still representing the various constituencies in Parliament. Today, some of those buildings are occupied by concubines of ex-MPs or have been sold out to persons that never were lawmakers. Places of abode for new MPs continue to pose a huge challenge to this nation every four years, with some new entrants to Parliament having to be housed in expensive hotels, we are told.
Just stop the waste; plain and simple. You contend that there is a law backing MPs and ministers taking cars and other state property home? Well, let’s scarp that law, then? Veteran journalist, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo’s, stance in 2009 in the wake of the second scramble for state vehicles in the Fourth Republic happens to be so relevant still that I pick excerpts as my concluding suggestion: “Ministers don’t have an interest in the desk or drapery or the litter bin in their office when they are leaving; why should their cars be different? They must part with every item provided to facilitate their duties while in office because they won’t require them for the purpose anymore. What they need in their private lives, they must acquire privately. That is what private citizens do.” Imagine Barak Hussein Obama leaving the Oval Office and insisting he goes home with Air Force One because he ever was President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States! Just imagine!!
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
