Ex-gratia Award accepted in full?
E. Ablorh-Odjidja

It may now come as a shock to many that the “"Ex-gratia award will be implemented in full,” a source close to Ghanadot has disclosed. But, don’t be surprised. This is Ghana. We do first muddy the pond, and then drink from it later.

So, after months of wondering where the ex-gratia package went, it is now highly possible, thanks to our own style of implementing programs, that the “ex-gratia” package is back on track for full implementation.

Some of us have long accepted the package as a good idea, even if it can be classified as a necessary evil; that it was a cheaper way to move presidents in Africa out of office and to keep them gratified in retirement than to remove them by coups.

But, earlier last year, the news about this “ex-gratia” package opened with controversy, The poor and the disgruntled did not take the news well. The interpretation was that the package was a robbery of the highest rank. And few were made to feed on their bile because of what they thought was unreasonable or unfair offer for the elite and the already rich of society.

Understandably, the poor had reason to feel cheated by it all. If your only means of transportation were the two spindles under your torso, the size of the ex-gratia package, that an ex-president should have six cars for example, regardless of the reasons given, may be too much for your bile too.

That a human ex-president should have access to six cars because of the recommendations within the package should be enough reason for you to take to the streets in anger.

But, if you happened to be among the politically disgruntled, you understood the intention of the ex-gratia well, however, your problem would be how not to allow the political controversy to go to waste.

Your true agenda, as a disgruntled citizen, might of course be hidden behind a gesture of doing the public good. Still, you would have successfully pushed the masses pass the point of reason.

And now how do you explain to the masses that the Ex-Gratia package proposal came under a UNDP sponsorship?…….READ MORE

 

E. Ablorh-Odjidja,Publsiher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, January 3, 2010

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Ex-gratia Award accepted in full?

Commentary, Jan 3, Ghanadot - It may now come as a shock to many that the “"Ex-gratia award will be implemented in full,” a source close to Ghanadot has disclosed. But, don’t be surprised. This is Ghana. We do first muddy the pond, and then drink from it later.....More