Pupils lined up to welcome Bush

Accra, Feb. 20, GNA - Thousands of pupils from the Accra Metro schools on Wednesday lined the street of the Independence Avenue through the African Union Circle to the Ako Adjei Interchange to welcome the visiting American President George Bush.

The children who had to wait for hours before his arrival, waved miniature flags of both Ghana and America as the convoy of President Bush passed around 1100 in the morning. Some of the children the GNA spoke to were however, disappointed that they did not see President Bush but had to contend with waving at his convoy.

"We did not see him. We only saw the hand of a white man waving gently from the black Limousine" majority of the pupils, aged between eight and 18 years echoed. According to some of the teachers who accompanied the pupils they were given a short notice to bring the children, majority of whom had not eaten, because they relied on the School Feeding programme. "Some parents do not give their wards monies to school, because they are aware that the children are being fed in school, but now they have to wait for the feeding time," a teacher said. He said, "This kind of thing is outmoded and it has to be scrapped because the children were made to stand in the sun without any refreshment."

Another teacher accompanying the pupils said in future the activity should be well organised with a selection of pupils. In another development, some workers of Zoomlion were also disappointed because the pupils had messed up the lawns and pavements that they had cleaned in the morning.

"The children have even destroyed some of the plants that we have worked hard to grow to beautify the roadsides and the walk ways," Ms Georgina Aruguma of Zoomlion said.