Houses for ex-President? Wrong!

By Senyo Hosi

I have struggled to keep quiet over the brouhaha of houses for Ex-Presidents but I can't anymore.

For god-sake, what business has a man got to do with being President if he cannot provide for himself and family, the basic necessity of a home? The State literally funds every expense directly and indirectly of a President and his family, even taxes are waived.

If you could not build a house before seeking to be president, why on earth did you not use your earnings to build or acquire one? Presidency is service not asset acquisition. If for nothing at all, wasn't there anything to learn from the modesty of H.E. Atta-Mills? His wife continues to live in their old home. If you have an old home too, please move into it.

I have heard arguments that $2,000 is inadequate to rent a house of the president's stature. I am sorry but i think the $2,000/month allowance is spirited to rather maintain an Ex-President's own home. Build your house to the extent of your stature and use the $2,000 to rather maintain it.

If every President spends just four years in office and takes a Government House(s) in Ridge, Cantonment or Labone, how many will be left in these prime areas in a 100yrs for use by the State's apparatus? What if the Ex-President opted to live in the Flagstaff/Jubilee House, would that too have been retained?

I will absolutely agree to the idea of an office in the capital and at worse, a Library providing Tourist opportunities for the hometowns of Ex-Presidents but to ask for a house? I respectfully think, is ridiculous.

The political elite ought to be very cautious. Our democracy is not a given. The debilitating dismissal of a sitting President at the Dec. 7 polls after just one term is clear evidence that the Ghanaian is losing patience for the political elite.

It is socially and democratically risky for the political elite to be seen by the "The people" as a group of persons conniving to rape the nation while masquerading as opponents. We struggle to pay our taxes, we fund you, don't take us for granted.

#OneGhana

Thoughts of Senyo Hosi