Mahama's lateness angers diplomatic envoys

President John Mahama’s late turn-up to an event yesterday in Accra did not go down well with members of the diplomatic corps.

The event was the commissioning of the New Lavender Hill faecal treatment plant by Mr Mahama.

Even though proceedings were scheduled to commence at 8:00am according to invitations sent out by the Corporate Communications Team of Zoomlion Company Limited, managers of the faecal treatment plant, the president and his entourage of ministers arrived at the venue at about 12 noon.

Members of the diplomatic corps, notable amongst them the Head of the European Union Delegation to Ghana, William Hanna, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ron Strikker, and Australia High Commissioner, Andrew Barnes, had arrived for the event before 8:00 am, thinking the programme would start on time so they could attend to other things for the day.

But, that was not meant to be as the president who was the main man for the day was nowhere to be found for close to four hours.

The diplomats were visibly frustrated and were seen glancing at their watches every second and complaining amongst themselves about the delay of proceedings.

At a point, they woke up apparently to leave when a certain lady, perhaps one of the organisers for the event, approached them with the aim of trying to calm them down.

The MC for the event, Jerry Adjorlolo, had on several occasions told the gathering that the president and his entourage would soon arrive, asking some guests to relocate their cars to create space for the president.

Exit

Ambassador Hanna was forced to leave the event 12:10pm, 10 minutes after the arrival of the president, the ministers of Youths and Sports, Local Government and Rural Development, Collins Dauda and Nii Laryea Vanderpuye as well as the Mayor of Accra, Alfred Okoe Vanderpujie.

No Apology

The president apparently saw his lateness as the normal Ghanaian attitude towards time, as he failed to offer an apology to the diplomats and even the traditional leaders who had also waited for him several hours under the hot sun.

Korean Envoy

It would be recalled that the Ghanaian attitude to time and late attendance to programmes of national importance received a backlash from the Korean Ambassador and a team of Korean engineers at a workshop held in Accra in September this year

Lyeo Woon-Ki, the ambassador, criticised the conduct of the officials of the Ministry of Transport after waiting for almost one hour at a workshop to solicit the inputs of stakeholders for a master plan project for Accra, in which the Korean government had provided a $1.5 million funding with technical expertise.