DCE turns a taxi driver

Mixed feelings greeted the decision of a 46-year-old former District Chief Executive (DCE) in the Northern Region to engage in full-scale taxi driving as a means of securing a meaningful source of livelihood.

The former DCE (name withheld), who served under the first New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, was reported to have been rendered unemployed after the then President J.A. Kufuor decided to replace him when the party was re-elected for a second term in 2005.

But the DCE, who felt he was unfairly treated by the NPP administration, decided to turn his only private saloon car into a taxi, and he has been driving the car himself for the past three years.

The Finder gathered that the former DCE now engages in a busy day-and-night work routine on the principal streets of Tamale.

A source close to the former DCE also revealed that until his appointment in 2001, he was into commercial farming with a relatively new farm tractor which had improved his fanning fortunes for years.

The source, however, indicated that as at the time of leaving office the DCE could not boast of any valuable asset as his farming fortunes had dwindled to the extent that he could no longer engage in any meaningful commercial agriculture.

"The best alternative for him by then was to convert the only saloon car he possessed when he was a DCE into a taxi," the source revealed.

The public has raised a basket of mixed feelings over the decision of the former DCE to engage in the taxi-driving business due to the reported cases of DCEs amassing wealth during their tenure of office.

Some of the people The Finder interviewed expressed shock over the matter and said something might have gone wrong with the former DCE.

Abdulai Zainab, a resident who lived in the same vicinity as the former DCE and claims she had boarded his taxi several times, told The Finder she was shocked to realise that the former DCE had turned to a taxi driver.

"I was shocked to the core" Zainab said, adding that "something seriously wrong might have happened when he exited office."

Zainab, however, said the former DCE seemed to be making higher gains from the business since there were improvements in his livelihood as compared to his early days after he left office.

Other section of the public The Finder contacted advocated better re-muneration packages for DCEs to provide them with a level of job security, especially after they exit office.