The President’s men and women in school
The President is aware. There are some individuals in his government undertaking the task he has assigned to them half-heartedly - by pursuing their private interests by slipping away into lecture halls.
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The only thing he does is to call on them to defer the courses. And at this point, I am not sure of what to think any longer!
The call to serve the nation trumps all other calls. At least, that is what it should be. If not for anything at all, it should be the peak of an individual’s achievement. And people should be bold to proclaim that they not only served in government but achieve very tangible and evident goals.
But the inverse is what we see around us. Men and women entrusted with key and sensitive positions are seen all over the place pursuing their own interest - acquiring degrees, masters and other certifications which for whatever reason they could not have acquired prior to their appointment.
To be sure, whenever there are conflicting interests, something suffers – and considering that most of government appointees make the mark, it is fair to assume that it is government business that suffers.
It beats my imagination why anyone occupying as high a position as a district chief executive would decide to pursue education at the expense of government business - when these government appointees ought to understand the implication of their absence.
If Ghana were to have a federal structure, then the district chief executives (and the other names by which they are referred to: municipal chief executive or metropolitan chief executive) would be governors of the various states.
Our law creates an executive committee (a cabinet one may say) for the district chief executive to preside over. The district chief executive is responsible for the day-to-day performance of the executive and administrative functions of the landmass he presides over.
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He has departments under him, which he supervises. He is the representative of the government in the district. To put it in clear terms, he is the president personified in the district. He is responsible for health, security, finance, and almost every think you can think of.
And to think that these men and women would abandon the sensitive positions that they hold; and be found in a lecture room somewhere beats my imagination. If not for nothing at all, it is a dereliction of duty and such persons do not deserve to be in office in the first place.
This is certainly an indictment on the precision and utility of the president’s power of appointment. And in so many ways, it is an abuse of office. Whose time do they employ in the studies? How do they commute from their respective offices to their place of studies?
Of course, I see the situation where someone may argue that the course of programme they are pursuing will improve their performance on the job. That may be true to a point. But it is also an admission that the persons appointed were not very qualified then to hold the positions assigned to them in the first place.
Government business is serious business - especially when a key aspect of our democracy is hinged on decentralisation (which means bringing governance closer to the grass roots).
We must come to the point where we appreciate the gravity of public office. It should be the point where those who choose to go into public service surrender and suspend all self-interest in the interest of the country.
In a sense, we are all called upon to serve the nation at different levels. The only difference is that some are required to provide focus and direction; and some are to tug along and puddle as hard as possible to get Ghana to where it is supposed to go. Those who are required to demonstrate leadership cannot be seen sleeping on the job.
We must remember that no other call trumps the call to public service and politics - and it must be observed as such.