A bizarre, unbelievable  story but which is true!

I number often seen and heard about things happening in Ghana that make me scratch my head and ask: “can this be true?”

But then, my patriotic instinct would switch itself on, and ad­vise me to: “Ask first, whether it can happen “in Ghana!” That’s because, for all you know, it may have occurred somewhere else, not Ghana. Yet, people who don’t like Ghana, or more probably, its ruling Govern­ment, are pretending that it happened here, so as to shame Ghana, its people and its Gov­ernment.”

That’s why I offer the item to you unedited, so that YOU can make up your own mind whether it’s true or not. Of course, it’s from a media source, in this case, JOYNEWS, and you would, in case you chose to disbelieve it, ask yourself what such an established media organisation has to gain by publishing a false story from a village which few Ghanaians have ever heard of.

Is such a story worth forfeit­ing an organisation’s hard-won credibility for? Well, here’s the story:

QUOTE: “Source: Myjoyon­line.com

17 July 2024 7:17am

“Nana Addo Boaman, the Chief of Nahinso in the Ashanti Region, was arrested by officials from the Asokwa Mu­nicipal Assembly for undertak­ing road works without official authorisation.

“He was subsequently re­leased on bail over the week­end.

“Defending his actions, Nana Addo Boaman stated that he acted out of necessity due to the authorities’ failure to address the persistent problems with roads in the area.

“The poor road conditions have been causing significant flooding, posing hazards to both motorists and residents.

“For years, the community of Nahinso, located in the Asok­wa Municipality and bordering the Bosomtwi District and Oforikrom Municipality, has been plagued by a deteriorating road network.

“Residents and motorists have continually voiced their frustrations and appealed for improvements.

Despite their persistent pleas, the road issues have remained unresolved, compelling the Chief to take matters into his own hands to mitigate the haz­ards and improve the communi­ty’s infrastructure.”

Now, in a perfect world, we would be fully informed about the officials who caused the chief to be arrested. We would also be told what the bosses of those officials did, when they heard of what their subordi­nates had done.

But in my view, those are contingent factors which do not address the main issue. That is this: in 2024, after so many years that Ghanaians have had the opportunity to “rule them­selves’ ‘, there are still people holding public appointments, who do not understand, in the least, what promoting the public interest that they were appointed to promote consists of.

Many such officials believe that they were appointed to wear a tie and jacket and turn up in an office each day and say “Yes sir!… Yes sir!” to the next senior man in the establish­ment.

Only the senior man is ex­pected to think. The rest just take orders.

Do you think that if those who ordered the Nanhin chief ’s arrest properly understood that they were appointed to ensure that the Central Government became aware of the needs of the people they were appointed to serve, and amongst whom they are supposed to live, they would cause the arrest of someone who merely wanted to help carry out repairs on a road which, it is the duty of the Government to keep motor­able?

I would like to see the Gov­ernment take the opportunity to educate

Its officials on the true meaning of representing the Government in the hinterland. And also on the true nature of serving the public interest.

The Government should also use the opportunity to educate its officials that gross stupidity in their ranks comes with a price, namely, dismissal.

The officials who caused the chief ’s arrest may have thought that they were “protecting” the Government because if people saw the roads being repaired through the efforts of the chief (and not the Government), the people would become “disaf­fected” with the Government.

But that is the people’s right! It is indeed short-sighted to as­sist the Government to ignore the needs of the people who elected it to power.

By their silly wish to enforce bureaucratic norms, the officials have in fact done the Govern­ment a great disservice, for now, the whole country knows that some government officials would much rather hide prob­lems than have them solved – especially if those who want to solve the problems are NOT Government officials!

How silly! How absolutely silly!

“

The Government should also use the opportunity to educate its officials that gross stupidi­ty in their ranks comes with a price, namely, dismissal.

“

By Cameron Duodu