Selling our birthright for a mess of pottage

On Friday, March 7,  I decided to round off the 57th Independence Anniversary celebrations with a visit to the new kid on the block, the Ghana Airways DC 10 now converted into a restaurant.

I chose La Tante for good reasons. First, I had read rave reviews about it as the first of its kind in our part of the world. Second, in my early days as a peacekeeper in Cambodia, I had fallen in love with the five-star ship Cambodiana hotel, seated on the Mekong River in Phnom Penh city. I had sampled what was on water and it was time to try what is in the air.

And so by 12:30 p.m.,  I pulled up at the car park. I was immediately impressed with the spacious parking lot and the smartness of the security detail. This is against the backdrop that in Ghana, good and spacious parking is not a necessary component of our public building code. It is not uncommon to see a supermarket that can house 100 customers with parking for only 10. Also we are yet to embrace underground parking in our architecture. 

The club beer designed restaurant looked gorgeous as I approached it. The feint red gold and green colours of the rudder were the only reminder of its allegiance to the once vibrant national airline.

As I started the ascent I was immediately reminded of the decay from which this restaurant has emerged. A squeaky staircase and a faded red carpet now turned brown.

Now in the restaurant itself, a polite waitress ushers me into a seat. The waiters and waitresses have certainly carried the message to put up a smile a bit too far as every request is greeted with a huge cosmetic smile. And so my request for a bottle of water was greeted with a huge grin and my order of Atcheke and grilled tilapia resulted in the full exposure of all 32 by the waiter. Well, if the tip I left her is anything to go by then surely there is more in smiling than frowning.

 A scan around the spacious bar area and the restaurant itself revealed quite a roomy place even for the 108 seating capacity. It is certainly not the akyikyi aya type that abounds in town. 

In terms of ambiance, the La Tante has none and can be likened to a staff canteen. There is nothing like décor apart from the corner flower. No curtains, no art pieces and the floor was bare. The air conditioners were a bit too high and any meal that was not consumed within 10 minutes risked getting cold.

The waiting period of 20 minutes for atcheke and grilled tilapia was acceptable and the meal was sumptuous and merited the GH¢35 price tag. It was an afternoon well spent.

But wait a minute, as I was exiting, it immediately dawned on me that this was the ashes of the world-acclaimed national carrier, Ghana Airways. Was it a dream or a reality? And then a series of questions filed past my mind. What went wrong? What is wrong with us? Did we have to sell a whole airline and replace it with a restaurant?

I began reminiscing about my numerous trips to peacekeeping operations on Ghana Airways flights. Our pride as Ghanaian soldiers anytime we descended Ghana Airways planes to applauses from the locals. It was indeed a huge statement of our nationality and sovereignty as Ghanaians. I still recall the kind of banters we used to exchange with the crew because they were our own.

It dawned on me that a healthy Ghana Airways could be employing over hundred times the number employed by La Tante, yet, we lament daily about unemployment. Where is the employment supposed to come from, heaven?

I also remembered the few times I flew Ghana Airways on private visits to the USA and UK, the kind of atmosphere on board as mostly Ghanaian passengers did our own things on board. The free for all chats about the Black Stars, the economy and the often near-perfect landing by our own crew. 

Then things changed. I remember us lying on the bare tarmac at Beirut International Airport over 24 hours as Ghana Airways failed to arrive. And the embarrassment Dr Afari Gyan, Maj Derick Oduro (retd), and I had to endure amidst insults and curses at the Lungi International Airport in Free Town as Ghana Airways failed to turn up.

As with most of our problems, the failure of Ghana Airways was attitudinal and systemic yet we managed to read spiritual meanings into it forgetting that trying to solve practical problems through spiritual means is always an exercise in futility. As our elders say, you cannot use water to do what you must do with liquor.

So almost all the crew members became unofficial courier services at the expense of paid for passenger baggage.  People could board the aircraft and pay a token into individual pockets. The poor airline wobbled on as board members continued to receive fat allowances.

The annoying thing is the incessant complaints by Ghanaian travellers about the ill treatment they receive at the hands of other airlines. The simple question is, na who cause am? 

Let us take a sober reflection. How are the Kenyans and Ethopians, able to run successful airlines? It is about time we got down from our high horses and went to pick their brains for it is really a worrying phenomenon how we have managed to collapse all our industries. The Black Star line, Ghana Railway Company, STC and several others have either crumbled or in very sorry state as a result of mismanagement, corruption, ineptitude, cronyism and crass incompetence.

In keeping with our penchant for claiming first in anything under the sun, there are talks about the La Tante being the first of its kind in our part of the world. But at what cost?

As for the owners of La Tante, I can only commend them for making something out of the  ashes of the airline. They should be rest assured that so long as they continued to provide good services some of us will squeeze water out of stone to be there occasionally. It is certainly a good addition to our tourists’ attractions.

But if this is not a classic  case of selling our birthright for a mess of pottage, then tell me, what else is?  

The writer is Head of Public Relations and Protocol  of the University of Cape Coast and a retired Senior Military Officer

Writer’s E-mail: kofikofi1977@hotmail.com