The branded MMT buses that somehow cost the Ghanaian taxpayer Ghc 3.6m to brand with the likeness of our former Presidents, has drawn a level of outrage from the populace not seen for a while.
And it is a truly profligate bit of spending, with no practical value- obviously over inflated to line up the pockets of some unscrupulous bastards in government. Even those involved in doing the job has shown how they and the entire country is being taken for a ride, considering they charged far far less than the figures government claim.
A political pressure group, concerned Ghanaians, have called on the former Presidents who are still alive, and whose images are also on the buses- to condemn the action, disassociate themselves from it- and even further, to call for their images to be taken down from the buses.
The group released a statement to that effect- read it below.
PETITION TO THEIR EXCELLENCIES, PRESIDENTS KUFFOUR AND RAWLINGS SEEKING TO HAVE THEIR IMAGES REMOVED FROM THE 116 BUS RAPID TRANSIT (BRT) BUSES.
Your Excellencies,
It is with great dismay that we, as Concerned Ghanaians, have noticed the adorning of 116 government procured BRT buses with the portraits of the current and former presidents, namely John Evans Atta Mills, John Agyekum Kuffour, Jerry John Rawlings and John Dramani Mahama.
We believe that you will consider it profligate, as we do, that government spent a whopping GHC3.6m on this hubristic exercise. In the midst of our current economic problems as a nation, which caused the President to admonish Ghanaians to tighten their belts, we find that it is a wasteful expenditure to paste pictures of former presidents including the current president on these 116 buses at an individual cost of GHC31,000.
Knowing the good values of prudent financial management and good governance which you ascribe to, we are left with no doubt in our minds that you do not approve of such an expenditure as well as the idea of placing your images on these buses.
We are thus humbly appealing to your good conscience to request that you direct that your images be taken off those buses.
We, together with the growing number of online signatories to this petition, shall remain eternally grateful to you if you could grant us our petition.