The purchase of a bathroom-fitted luxurious aircraft for the use of the Commander-In-Chief of the nation would not have been a matter of polemics as it has become today but for the propaganda which enveloped an earlier effort by the Akufo-Addo administration to do same.
We are convinced that in future politicians especially the young ones in the game would learn how to conduct themselves while in opposition trenches. On hindsight it is interesting juxtaposing how the journey from the proposal to replace the presidential aircraft under the Akufo-Addo regime commenced to where we are today with the approval for the purchase. The subject was reduced to pedantic propaganda by political adults and the young ones with sharp-teeth doing their bidding in the media. They knew that what they were churning out to the public constituted mendacity yet they persisted in that direction religiously.
So cheap were some of the propaganda that critical observers wondered why persons could because of obsession for power descend to such low…the aircraft the then president sought to purchase had a bathroom were part of the nonsense being served the citizens. Waste water from the President’s shower would descend upon the heads of Ghanaians as the aircraft flew past.
Another issue raised by the then opposition leader now President was that the country’s economy could not afford such a luxury. Many Ghanaians were hungry and could not afford to meet their daily essential needs and so it was frivolous to contemplate purchasing a luxurious aircraft.
Has the country witnessed a major turnaround in her fortunes to the extent that citizens no longer struggle to pay their utilities, kids’ school fees and purchase foodstuff at reduced cost?
We recall the now Foreign Affairs Minister describing the presidential aircraft as in pristine state and so there was no need for a replacement. What has changed between that time, last year, and now? He said that the then Minority in Parliament would oppose the purchase of a replacement for ‘the excellent aircraft.’ Today the tables have changed, the then Minority is in the Majority because truly no condition is permanent.
It is our hope that it would not be lost on him that times indeed change and when the Minority become Majority questions would be posed to test the integrity of persons who said things they can no longer defend.
President John Mahama was philosophical when he said that ‘give power to a person and you would see the stuff he is made of.’
Today he has been given power by Ghanaians and his taste for a luxurious aircraft with a bathroom and perhaps a Jacuzzi has been activated.
