I’m not bitter but only setting record straight — Mabengba

Ghana’s former envoy to Angola, Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, has insisted that he is not bitter about the treatment meted out to him at the VIP Lounge of the Tamale Airport.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in reaction to the treatment, Mr Bukari said he only wanted to make a case out of the incident and to be on record.

It will be recalled that Mr Mabengba was walked out of the VIP lounge at the Tamale Airport with the explanation that he was not among the category of persons allowed to use the facility.

But embarrassed Mr Mabengba vowed never to use the facility at the country’s airport as long as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government remains in power.

Said he, “I want to be on record that after we left office, we  were prevented from using some facilities; so that in future when my party comes into government and the same measures are put in place, no sanctimonous pastor or civil society organisations or whatever will come and tell us that what we are doing is not correct”.

The former Northern Regional Minister said he had served the country without blemish in various capacities as a district chief executive (DCE), Member of Parliament (MP), deputy minister, minister and an ambassador spanning 21 years, and if such courtesies could not be extended to him, he wondered where the country was headed in its quest for true democracy.

Walked out

Commenting on the matter, he said  “since January, we’ve been using this place until this morning I got to the place and a young man came to inform me that ‘Please, you are no more allowed to come and use the VIP lounge,’ and I asked why and he said orders from above.”

“Fortunately for me, I was sitting in the lounge with one of the NPP MPs and also a Minister,  Madam Hawa Koomson, and I told her, ‘Look at what your people are doing – they are asking me a former ambassador, minister and MP not to use the lounge.’

“I will never use the VIP lounge whether they change the directive or not. I do not think this is the way we must treat our past leaders who have served this country in various portfolios. I have been DCE for eight years, an MP, a deputy minister, minister and an ambassador, and just using a VIP lounge cannot be extended to me?” he asked.

Embarrassing spectacle

He wondered why he would be subjected to such an embarrassing spectacle, reiterating his stance not to use the facility whether the procedure was changed or not.

“Meanwhile, I know that while we were in government, this place was free, and I even cited several examples…I remember when we lost and the Vice-President visited, I received them at the airport, all of them, including non-appointees of government, we were all allowed to pass through the VIP, and today they did that to me.”