The National Honours and Awards Day has now come of age!
‘’For me, therefore, one of the most important qualities a person must possess in order to be President is judgement…. President Kufuor’s decision to confer an award, the nation’s highest award on himself, was a bad judgement. It is simply not done. All the time former Presidents wait for their successors to come after them to give them awards for their services to the nation.
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Indeed, no one ever marks his own script. But not President Kufuor. He determined that he had done well and proceeded to confer an award on himself. The majority of Ghanaians were appalled. It left only one impression on the minds of Ghanaians: President Kufuor is a self-serving, self-aggrandising President. It was a bad judgement.’’
— Mustapha Hamid in ‘’It is a Question of Judgement’’ published in March, 2009.
This explosive article on the presidential qualities of former President Kufuor came to mind when I laid my hands on the brochure covering the awardees at this year’s National Honours and Awards ceremony. I note with satisfaction that even this paper editorialised on it last Tuesday. The ceremony itself was held last Saturday. No, I was not in the audience, neither did I watch it on television, though I knew it was ongoing. This was because I was held up. I now regret not being present, or watching it on television. This is the meat of today’s epistle, so let me digress a bit, but not too far off.
Mustapha Hamid was a spokesperson for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, in 2008, and continued in this position for 2012 and for this year too. His position and closeness to the NPP leader may lead some to conclude, therefore, that his frontal attack on President Kufuor was sanctioned by the leader and presidential candidate. Such a conclusion has its own hazards on the real meaning of fellowship, friendship and unity in the NPP.
The national awards and honours ceremony is an annual event in the political calendar of this country, and usually conducted by the President in person, as this one was. In the history of the awards ceremony from 1960 when we became a completely independent Republic, none had been as controversial as the 2008 one on which Mr Hamid wrote so scathingly about the most successful leader of his own party since its historical foundation in either 1947, or 1957, depending on which narrative one chooses to rely on, whether the Dr Danquah-inspired one or the Okyeame Baafuor Akoto narration, respectively.
Public outcry
The 2008 event, which formed the focus of Hamid, was a spectacular letdown for Ghana. It had almost all the ministers of state in the outgoing President Kufuor government honoured plus, an assortment and assemblage of provincial entertainers, hack journalists distinguished by fierce abandonment of professional standards for abject sycophancy, party satraps, and others. What caused consternation in the breasts of Ghanaians generally was the fact that included in the initial list of honourees and awardees was Captain rtd. Kojo Tsikata and then plain Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who were preparing feverishly for the December 2008 triple elections which brought President Mills to power. These two declined the honours. Strangely enough, the then presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo, was not included in the first list of names published but after uproar from his supporters, he was added, and he dutifully went to receive his. Why was he excluded, then later added? That remains an unanswered conundrum.
The epicenter of the violent public outcry was the decision by President Kufuor to create another national award, made up of a spectacularly gaudy gold chain for himself. In other words, he thanked himself handsomely for the work he had done for Ghanaians as the first public servant of the republic! Hence the fury of Mr Mustapha Hamid.
Quality of awardees
This year, the quality and breath of the awardees did ample justice to the idea of saying a national thank you to our distinguished citizens. The number of distinguished persons awarded was thirty three individuals, including seven foreigners and four who predeceased their elevation. There were also some, not in the brochure, who were awarded and whose names escape me. One of them, a medical doctor, stayed on at the Akwatia CAST Mines Hospital when the company withdrew from the diamond mines to offer medical assistance to the community without ever once, partaking in the numerous strikes and industrial actions which has marred the image of the profession.
Of the rest, some leapt to the eye. For example, Mr Totobi-Quakyi came to national prominence as a student leader when he was the NUGS President at the University of Cape Coast round about the same time as others far older than him who never fail to remind us of their politics in the latter 1970, and who he has far surpassed in office and achievements. Dr Seth Ablorh was my senior in school, and a committed Christian doctor whose work with the Manna Mission bespeak love of service to community and nation. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the distinguished old engineer, Michael Asafo-Boakye, who I know took part in the construction of both the Peduase Presidential Lodge in 1959, and Job 600 built for the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Conference in October 1965, and now serving as offices for Members of Parliament.
I also found to my delight, that Dr Mensah, Head of Urology Department at Korle Bu Hospital, among the awardees. If Rev. Professor Dzobo, then of Cape Coast University, headed the committee whose findings have transformed primary and secondary education in this country as far back as 1970, then the honour for providing the ideas for university education also to be opened up belonged to Professor Chukwuka Okonjo, then the Director of the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana. Attending his fascinating public lectures at Legon in those days in the early 80s was a truly heady but humbling experience. He was among the seven foreigners honoured. These days, one wonders the calibre of our university teaching staff and their impact on public policy.
In several respects, the most remarkable of them all was Prince Emmanuel Asare from Abetifi, who left employment in Auto Parts Shop to establish the first indigenous vehicle spare parts shop in Ghana, opening up the Abossey Okai spare parts dealers’ enclave. That was in 1977, and we can imagine the impact that vibrant enclave had on those with vehicles in Ghana, and the thousands of jobs it spawned. Thank you President Mahama, for restoring the dignity and seriousness of this event in our country. Congratulations to all our compatriots and the foreigners whose exertions in the public sphere have been nationally recognised. We really needed it.
aburaepistle @hpotmail.com