Kufuor Kicked Out! & Lordina Kicked In!

In a matter of just three weeks, former President John Agyekum Kufuor would have spent exactly a year out of office as President of Ghana. It would be a year in which he has been denied all that is due him as a former President of Ghana.

He has been denied all state facilities, including the use of state vehicles, his ex-gratia, pay for his staff and even the use of a public accommodation as an office!

More than six months ago, he was chased out of the building that was renovated for his use as a former President with the excuse that the facility belongs to National Security! But whilst all that is happening, the government that has denied former President John Kufuor the use of an office has granted 2nd Lady, Lordina Mahama, wife of the Vice President, John Mahama, the use of a state building, fully refurbished and renovated, for use as an office for her private (NGO)!

The Searchlight newspaper checks reveal that even though the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was accused by the current ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) of ostentation and profligate expenditure, it did not go to the level of granting the then 2nd Lady the use of a state bungalow as an office! The building, located at House Number C2 at Cantonments in Accra, is believed to be one of the residences refurbished at ¢1.2billion which went to parliament recently, even though sources in the office of Vice President John Mahama insist that the renovation was done with the private funds of the Mahama family.

This assertion has been questioned in the light of the fact that the same officials insist that the building is an official allocation! Speaking to the Searchlight newspaper last week on whether they had been assigned an office in the light of the fact that the government was busy handing them around, Mr. Frank Agyekum, Spokesperson to former President Kufuor, said that they had still not been granted the use of state accommodation for use as an office. “We have been denied everything, not our vehicles, not our ex-gratia, not our salaries, and certainly not an office,” he said.

The current President, Mr. John Evans Atta Mills, told Ghanaians during his inauguration at the Independence Square on January 7th 2009, that he was going to be a President for all, a declaration that has been very selectively applied in favoring his political allies and denying his political opponents what is due them!