Public wants courtesy calls on President Mills regulated (political page)

Monday February 9,2009




SOME members of the public have complained about the number of groups that pay courtesy calls on the President J.E.A Mills on a daily basis, adding that such calls could delay administrative work at the Presidency.
In addition to a man who identified himself as Evans Lartey through a telephone chat with the Daily Graphic on Friday over the issue, other people who the paper spoke to, expressed similar sentiments.
When contacted, a source at the State Protocol Department indicated that each day, the President received an average of five groups, which usually stretched continually between 9.00am to 5.00pm.
According to the source, what the public see on television and read in the newspapers were just a tip of the iceberg, since many of the visits were not captured on camera.
Without disputing the significance of such courtesies in the Ghanaian context, those who spoke to the Daily Graphic had the opinion that the visits should be limited to umbrella bodies, instead of all those splinter groups which troop to the Castle on a daily basis.
They also suggested that other methods, such as written congratulatory messages, could serve the same purpose in some cases.
A 50-year-old proprietor of a private educational institution at Sowutuom in Accra, Mr Yaw Boakye-Agyemang, said if the practice was allowed to continue, the President would be forced to use his first 100 days in office only on receiving visitors, while his actual work remained undone.
“Won’t it be enough for a body like the National House of Chiefs to visit the President on behalf of all chiefs, instead of individual chiefs going to the Castle as well?” He asked.
For his part, Mr Albert Salia, a journalist, said pledging their support for the President could be in the form of writing, instead of paying personal visits.
“Prior to the election, the various groups shared their views and needs with the then candidate Mills and if he had won the election, all they need to do is to remind him of his promises to them and the reciprocal support him through writing,” he said.
Mr Salia said some of those groups did not even want to associate with him when he was candidate Mills, but all kinds of groups were now “ambushing” him, instead of allowing him to concentrate on his work.
He said the four-year mandate given to President Mills started immediately after he was sworn in and that “every second, minute and hour wasted form part of that four-year period”.
A 32-year-old dressmaker, Ms Phyllis Narh, who described herself as a National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporter, said apart from disturbing the President, these groups spent a lot of money in travelling from all over the country to Accra for such visits, adding that one should also consider the risk involved in doing that.
Ms Narh suggested that officials of the State Protocol Department who managed such programmes at the Presidency should find diplomatic ways of curtailing such visits, since, although significant, had the tendency to create problems.
Ms Dorcas Boateng, a student at the University of Ghana, Legon, said she felt uncomfortable anytime she saw the President on television welcoming more than two groups a day to the Castle.
“President Mills should be allowed to sit behind his desk and work, so that we all can benefit,” she stressed.