Observing President Mahama at work
Monday, June 24, 2013, was a day that I closely observed the activities of President John Dramani Mahama at the Flagstaff House, the seat of government in Accra. The activities of the day for the President were loaded, with one activity coming immediately after another.
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Not long after President Mahama had entered his office at the Flagstaff House at 7 a.m, the Presidential Staffer in charge of the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau, Mr Stan Dogbe, stepped into his office to give him a briefing on topical issues making the news and other political developments across the country.
The briefing, I understood, centred on the issues in the print and electronic media that demanded the attention and action of the President. Developments on the economic and political fronts were also captured in the briefing.
The President then gave an instruction to Mr Dogbe on some of the issues.
Thereafter, the Executive Secretary to the President, Dr Raymond Atuguba, and the Chief of Staff, Mr Prosper Douglas Bani, went in to brief the President on the activities for the day.
They gave him a rundown of the engagements of the day, including meetings with government officials, representatives of development partners and the business community.
As usual, President Mahama gave his word on the programmes that he would participate in and the people he would give audience to. He also gave some instructions on some issues.
That was followed by a national security meeting, which was attended by the Vice-President and it centred on intelligence on some developments across the country that had a bearing on the security of the nation.
The President then participated in the presentation on performance contract by the Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani, and the Minister of Transport, Mrs Dzifa Aku Ativor.
He sat through the presentation and made some inputs into the objectives and targets set out by the two ministers of state. The ministers of state are supposed to factor the President's input into their final documents.
Before the presentation, the President held a one-on-one session with the ministers of state and held a debriefing session with them after.
Besides, President Mahama held meetings with some government officials, foreign delegates and representatives of development partners and the business community.
Some of the dignitaries waited at the lobby for some time before having audience with the President.
The only activity opened for coverage was a courtesy call on the President by the former German President, Mr Horst Köhler.
As soon as it was decided that the meeting would be opened for coverage, the Flagstaff House Communication Bureau sent text messages to the members of the President's press team inviting them to cover the meeting at 4:30 p.m.
Mr Köhler, who is in the country to attend a meeting of European and African entrepreneurs, was at the seat of government to hold some discussions with President Mahama.
The discussions centred on Ghana-German relations and the need for the youth to be given the requisite skills needed on the job market.
Before any of the engagements, either the Executive Secretary to the President or the Presidential Staffer in charge of the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau briefed President Mahama on the institution, the personalities involved and the issues at stake.
As usual, the last activity for the President was a debriefing by the Chief of Staff before he left the office around 7.30 p.m.
The debriefing captured the activities that the President participated in during the day, the outcomes and the possible actions to be taken on them.
Last Monday was typical of a working day in the life of President Mahama as indicated by Mr Dogbe.
However, Mr Dogbe said there were some occasions when he and other government officials went to the President's residence early in the morning to give him some briefing and receive instructions from him.
It is the severity of the issues that compels the government officials to go to the President's residence to do the briefing and receive instructions from him on how to address some of the issues.
By Musah Yahaya Jafaru