Toddlers at play

The sorry state of Ghanaian politics will not go away anytime soon-especially in our life time. The stupidity will always continue, irrespective of which of them is in power. The thing is they all behave like underage kids running after the Christmas Santa Clause for sweets. No wonder a change in government comes with the change in almost everything-including changes in the name of buildings, streets, and public toilets.

And talking about names, I got an usual call from a friend last Saturday night asking me if I had heard about the change of the name ‘Jubilee House’ back to its old name, ‘Flag Staff House. My answer was no and that such a thing will not happen, at least for my mind. I promised the friend I was going to call back to confirm or deny whatever she’s heard.

I forgot and when to bed. The following morning I woke up and on the morning news of Accra’s based JoyFM, the news presenter mentioned as part of his lead that the name ‘Jubilee House’ is now ‘Flag Staff’ House, as it used to be known before the egoistic John Kufour, for political pettiness, changed it. Jubilee or Flagstaff house is the name of the monstrous and needless presidential building which John Kufour spent the tax payer’s money to build for the comfort of his own.

Kwame Nkrumah used the place during the early days of Ghana’s Independence and that was how the first name came about. I was one of those who openly spoke against John Kufour’s ridiculous decision to change the name however, I thought the harm had been done and things should remain the way they are. Kufour’s intentions were clearly known; to obliterate Nkrumah’s name from history. Inasmuch as the decision to change the name was stupid, I find also the decision by the NDC government to reverse it crappy.
What on earth will the name do to the people of Ghana? Will that put forward on the table for the truck pusher who is taxed almost on daily basis? Those are the questions we should be asking those idiotic politicians.

The change presents a rather worrying picture for the NDC. President Mills just returned from what government says are two successful trips from both Japan and China and the benefits, we are being told, will soon show. I have heard billions of dollars and, hopefully, when the monies are used for which they have been promised, then we are solving some of the problems at hand. It is a single trip which, according to government sympathisers, is making the opposition elements piss in their pants. And rather than letting the success linger on and for the opposition to piss in their pants, what the NDC chaps have done is that they have shifted attention from the seemingly successful trip of the president to a rather mundane change in name.

And in a country where the media thrives on senseless controversy, the discussion will centre on the change of the name: I can guarantee that a whole week or even more will be spent by both parties to discuss the merits or demerits of the change and while they are at it, the essential things such as equitable distribution of clean water, provision of quality education and regular supply of energy to our people will be left alone.

Already the pettiness involved in the naming and renaming was played out by elements of the two parties: NDC and NPP. Kobby Acheampong, deputy minister of tourism said on Metro TV that the name is ‘meaningless.’ His explanation was that the initial name was more historical in outlook and it was needless for the previous government to change it.

Ursula Owusu, a lawyer and activist of the NPP said reverting back to the old name was just an attempt by the ruling government to erase the name of former president John Kufour.
“When you go to the US… do you see White House written anywhere?...and yet people know that is the White House, it is classy, it is descent …the building speaks for its self,” Ursula claimed.


“But look at what we’ve done, crude, very very crude; and this is the government that calls itself open, transparent and honest. …we go to sleep and wake up and this is plastered on the wall…where was the discussion, where was the preparation of the Ghanaian’s mind?" she asked.

in all of the petty discussion all that these political hoodlums are saying has nothing to do with how to improve the quality of life of the Ghanaian, how to ensure that pregnant mothers go to hospitals and they come back alive, how to ensure that children studying under trees are housed in proper classrooms.
No. That means nothing to them, rather their stomachs mean much more to them than anything.

God Bless Ghana.