Bitter words over chalk box
Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur ordinarily may be a nice person who will not hurt a fly. Her circumstances went through a sudden change when she was elevated to the position of Second Lady of the land by virtue of being the wife of the Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana.
She is not one of those public office holders whose jobs, responsibilities and privileges are clearly defined and captured in the 1992 Constitution, and as a consequence, she will not enjoy the mouthwatering end-of-service benefits prescribed for Article 71 office holders.
Her role is purely that of a mother of the nation and she automatically assumes the face of good and responsible motherhood or a role model for all women, for that matter.
Whenever she decides to perform a public function, she does so not as an obligation but in support of the government in which her husband is an active and key stakeholder and player as the second most powerful person after the President of the Republic.
I believe it is in this regard that she decided or offered to make a presentation of computers donated by the Chinese Embassy in Ghana to a primary school in Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region.
This means that even though she is not a public office holder, her privacy has greatly been curtailed and, therefore, every little thing she says or does, which could easily have been ignored in her past, gathers weight.
As Ghanaians, we are used to asking for things, or is it begging? Our Presidents use every opportunity to ask for one thing or another, whether they are receiving foreign visitors or visiting their foreign lands.
Our traditional rulers do not miss the opportunity to beg for something any time a government official, no matter how big or small his influence, is visiting their communities. This begging syndrome is extended to foreign visitors, especially if they happen to be white, even if they are students.
Our whole survival, it appears, hinges on foreign support and so the begging syndrome has become a culture we solemnly do not breach when we have an august guest in our midst.
That is why Madam Juliet Oppong did not fail to mention to the Second Lady some of the problems confronting her school for onward transmission to those whose responsibility it is to provide those items.
The headmistress was not wrong. Yes, a box or two of chalk occasionally could be provided by a concerned teacher, parents or philanthropists. But should that be the standard of managing our public schools?
If we can buy a Toyota Land Cruiser or Prado or its smaller version for the aggrandisement of a few public holders, why can’t we buy chalk for our schools?
If the Second Lady is frustrated to hear a request for common chalk for a primary school, the headmistress and for that matter teachers and pupils are even more frustrated that such a basic teaching tool is missing in a country whose leaders parade such opulence.
I thought it was an opportunity for the Second Lady to appreciate the enormity of the problems confronting this nation, and see beyond Kukurantumi and carry herself into the classrooms of our rural communities and see the damage our leaders are doing to our children and their future by spending all our national wealth on themselves, so that she could begin to be an advocate for change.
Madam Oppong’s request for chalk is not the first and it will not be the last. Hers is only another voice echoing a common problem confronting our schools.
For all you know, Mrs Amissah-Arthur did not mean to be harsh but she definitely trivialised the issue and saw it in the narrow confines of a small school in a small part of the country.
If she were to see it in a wider context, she would have seen a bigger picture of the deprivations that have engulfed our schools and who knows, she would have reacted in a different way.
One thing is, however, very important. We should know that public office is a privilege to serve and every opportunity should be used to show that we care. We should also know how to package information when addressing issues in the public domain to avoid any distortion in the intended message. As it is, an opportunity to be an inspiration and a comforter, an instrument for change, has been bungled and lost.
No Ghanaian is a burden on any public office holder. But all public office holders are a big burden on Ghanaians and they should not allow their relative comfort to becloud their minds from the reality on the ground.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk