A friend of mine has been trying to meet a Deputy Minister for over three months now. Being a young guy with little to no ‘contacts’ yet, he’s had to go about it the old fashioned way, by trying to get the Minister during advertised visiting hours.
These visiting hours are limited to two hours in an entire week, and are supposed to be the only time anyone can have unfettered access to this Minister without prior appointment. Needless to say the esteemed deputy hasn’t been in office even once during those hours the past three months.
My friend has a brilliant idea, which if implemented might revolutionise one particular sector in need of revolutionising, and certainly drag it into the 21st Century. He has been sitting on it for over a year, spent thousands of Ghana cedis on setting it up at the ground level, but now needs some sort of official seal to implement it large scale.
He’s never had the opportunity to meet the Minister, and his staff was scarcely helpful. When an attempt was made to book an official appointment, the answer was that only the Minister can ask to meet someone.
Otherwise, they give you a piece of paper, you write your contact info and intended purpose for the meeting, and you give it to them.
A piece of paper, in 21st century Ghana; they probably toss it into the bin as your back is turned.
What’s the purpose of this long digression? There is a feeling by elected officials in this country that they’re above the common people. Sure people in Government can and should be busy, but you scarcely make a commitment then fail to keep it even once in three consecutive months!
And that’s only what I know about, who knows how long it’s been going on or if it has ever happened before at all.
Maybe the visiting hours sign is just to delude people into thinking the Minister is accessible, when in actual fact none of them are.
Why should they have to worry about the common people, when they have a country to run into the ground? We are rife with economic problems, in the process of arranging an IMF bailout; with such exemplary performance who has time to meet ordinary people for two hours a week?
For the politician nothing is more important than keeping in touch with the grassroots. This visiting hours thing is actually a stroke of genius if utilised well. You can meet people; listen to what they have to say without making any commitments, come out having made a strong impression on them without even committing anything.
What is there to lose, except a few hours and maybe a few chats with people you’d rather avoid, but those are the hazards of the job.
Yet when it is treated as it is being now, it is a grave insult to the people who put these politicians in office. Without any other means of gaining an appointment, the neglect of these few hours for the common people border on the criminal.
In the current economic climate it is a herculean task getting a job. Self employment is a viable alternative if you can find the means, yet a person hell bent on setting up a business is on the verge of failure due to political elitism.
Forgive me for being old fashioned, but I believe our elected officials should be a little more accessible than that. Otherwise two years from now we shouldn’t see any desperate last minute attempts to paint themselves as ‘The Man of the People’, because that’s exactly what they aren’t.
They’ve simply lost touch with reality and yet have the audacity to call themselves ”honourables”. Ghanaians can really put up with nonsense.