MAD Rush For Mansions In Kumasi

... As 2004 approaches

AN advanced team of the ‘Ghana ’ to Kumasi have discovered a new residential enclave at Atase Manso, where President J. A. Kufuor and some of his Ministers and close associates have either bought mansions or putting up new ones.

The new presidential mansion, according to investigations, was bought from a foreign businessman, who is packing out from a company.

The cost of renovation of the mansion, as well as those carried out on the others, belonging to our “new rulers”, it is believed, run into billions of cedis.

Another attraction to the ‘Elephants City’ is the construction of a first-class road to the site, which is providing more comfort and delight to the privileged few, who use it.

Meanwhile, another Minister, has bought about eight plots, near the Golf Park. An imposing building is taking shape on two of the plots, while the others may be on a “speculating” list.

The rush for the acquisition of property in, especially, Kumasi and the speed with which renovations are being carried out on some of them remind one of the hysterical scene created in Accra by members of the Government, in their early days in office, when bungalows, both new and old, had to be renovated, at frightening costs, which baffled building experts and sparked off official queries.

Prior to the latest housing-craze, some buildings, belonging to the state, including those left behind by the Ghana National Trading Company (GNTC) had been secretly auctioned to leading NPP Government functionaries, at prices that can well be queried, under the circumstances.

Some describe the action as a swoop on Kumasi, in search of property, to fall in line with the ideological concept of the NPP, which is “Propertied Democracy”, as announced by the President himself in his maiden address to Parliament.