Accra — The people of Ghana are busy assessing the first week in power of President John Agyekum Kufuor who was sworn in on Sunday 7 January and immediately set to work.
On Monday, Kufuor began consultations with the heads of government departments and the civil and security services. He also held meetings with diplomats, visiting dignitaries and officials from the international lending institutions.
The mood in the new government seems to reflect the tone of the president's inaugural speech on Sunday. "We have work to do and that starts today."
Kufuor has nominated twelve cabinet ministers and appointed a chief of staff and an advisor on national security in his first week. He has also created a new ministry of women s affairs. All in a week's work appears to be the consensus of Ghanaians who have been phoning into radio talk shows to give their opinions of progress so far.
Most callers have been in favour of the ministerial appointments and praised Kufuor for making the right moves early, although some have questioned the naming of the president's brother as Defence Minister.
Others however, have angrily phoned in to criticize commentators and journalists for questioning and dissecting the legacy and leadership of the outgoing president, Jerry Rawlings, saying that he did much for Ghana and that what he did should be remembered and rewarded. Credit where credit is due, they bark down the telephone line, telling Ghanaians to stop demonizing their hero.
But what has really captured the imagination of Ghanaians this week has been gossip, rumour and speculation. Who will be appointed minister? Where will the new president live and work? In the Castle? At State House? What about Flagstaff House? And, what about Rawlings, where will he be living and who will be paying?
There has been much loose talk about a luxury villa, which allegedly cost billions of cedis to refurbish and renovate, in a swanky and exclusive residential enclave of Accra close to a number of foreign embassies. The rumour mill, and the Chronicle newspaper, have it that this former Australian Embassy residence was hand-picked for Rawlings and bought by the outgoing government at a handsome dollar figure as a plush presidential retirement home.
There is heated discussion on how the other members of the ancien regime should be treated. How should outgoing ministers, officials and MPs be "resettled?" That's the current buzz word; namely what end-of-service benefits should they leave with and perhaps more importantly, without?
Ghanaians have all had a laugh at the expense of one senior official who is alleged to have tried to carry a television set that was state property, out of his office, but who was barred by the staff who refused to let him go.
Apocryphal stories or the truth? It is hard to determine what is fact and what is fiction, but nothing stops the rumour-mongering as Ghanaians speculate and debate. Everyone has become an armchair politician-cum-commentator and purveyor of justice and logic.
Conversations are peppered with guffaws, flavoured with some regret and spiced with gleeful irreverence as anyone who is anyone in the political arena comes under the spotlight. No one escapes scrutiny.
The flamboyant, passionate and controversially charismatic When in office Rawlings may have been a journalist's delight because there was always something to report, but the press is still having a field day now, reflecting the views of Ghanaians on the new administration, with added lashings of the media s own well-marinaded reports.
The continuing discussion about who authorized outgoing officials to buy their duty saloon cars (and not 4x4s) at knock down prices has been the hottest topic, with misinformation rife. A figure of four thousand GVs (government vehicles) re-registered with civilian number plates in a matter of days, was reported, by one newspaper.
This was promptly denied the next day in another paper, quoting an official from the outgoing administration saying that only one hundred and six government vehicles had been submitted for re-registration, all with the duly signed and approved dockets making the transactions official and legal.
Ghanaians are insisting that all government officials declare their assets as they step into office, so that they can be checked when they leave -- to make sure they tally. They want the assets of those on the way out to be thoroughly investigated.
But the biggest crowd puller has been the issue of the presidential and post-presidential dwellings. Where will Kufuor reside, and where will the new president set up office? Christiansborg Castle? The former Danish colonial slave fort, which has became synonymous with Rawlings who lived and worked there through most of his military and constitutional years in office, holds a mythical fascination for most Ghanaians.
Some revere it, many loathe and fear the very thought of the Castle, arguing it was used to torture people and commit all sorts of atrocities, violations of human rights and nefarious, unthinkable, un-Ghanaian activities or worse.
Kufuor started his working week operating from the presidential lodge at State House, which set frenzied tongues wagging. Castle or no Castle?
On Wednesday, Ghana's new president put paid to the rumours and disappointed those who urged him to abandon the Castle. He toured the buildings and held meetings with the staff, after which Kufuor told Ghanaians: "I wish to assure you that the Castle still remains the seat of government."
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Kufuor explained, "We want to shed the image of the Castle as a place where all kinds of negative acts, such as the cruel shaving of people and throwing them into cells unjustifiably, were committed." He appealed to Ghanaians to make a conscious effort to discard this impression, recalling the Castle's use during the colonial era as slave dungeons, and to give it a 21st century image that would represent a new symbol and the true reflection of government of the people by the people.
The negative image of excessive use of power associated with the Castle was unjustified, says the new Ghanaian leader. Kufuor concluded by saying that he and his government had come not as conquerors, but as partners with the people. This echoed one of the themes in Kufuor's maiden presidential speech when he said, "Fear must be banished from our public and political life."
Many Ghanaians have responded with relief, and the most often heard comment this first week of a new political era is thank God for freedom and a breath of fresh air, now let's hope for positive change. That is what Kufuor and his New Patriotic Party have promised, it is now up to them to deliver, or at the very least to try.
