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What’s in a name, Jubilee or Flag Staff House?
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
Is a rose without thorns still a rose or how about Jubilee House
being named Flag Staff House?
It is very inviting to leave the “rose” speculation to
philosophers. But with a presidential guards’ security complex
housed within or outside the walls of this Presidential Palace,
and
as part of the speculation, we can’t help saying that this
arrangement conjures up the image of a fort under siege.
We have the history to remind us of coups in Ghana as well as
other spots in Africa. The nearness of a presidential guard
facility to a palace has never prevented coups from happening.
It didn’t stop the coup in 1966 even though there was one nearby.
So the construction of an additional housing facility for security
personnel will be a
waste of public funds.
But of all the issues, why this speculation now? For many of us
in the media, the timing even seems like a diversionary tactic.
The news of the M & J bribery case is badly hurting the
government’s image, so speculations about the
Presidential Palace must now come to the rescue.
Ironically, this attempt to divert attention from the corruption
charges, if true, emphasizes
the uselessness of speculations about the possible change of
name and the additional cost to come before Jubilee House is
fully completed.
The primary reason being, all this need not to be happening if
the call for a housing for our presidents had not earlier been
turned into a political football.
Aside from the timing being a possible diversionary tactic,
the current decision to complete the move to Jubilee House could
also have been forced upon the
NDC administration by the strong show of public concern for the
waste implied in the non-use of such a costly magnificent
presidential facility.
The need to save face has, therefore, arrived: So how about adding a
security complex, which, interestingly, was not in the original
plan, and raise the total cost by additional $50 million before
completion (forgetting that you had earlier kicked against the original
cost as being too high)? Or, blaming the delay on the state of
affairs inside the building?
For the last reason, you will have to forget that a house left
unused for months would definitely show some signs of decay. If
the excuse of decay is essential to your argument then the long
suspension
to move in would have been a deliberate part of your strategy.
But since we are also on the quest of finding fault in the
entire episode of building a presidential palace now, we may
just as well put the blame for the latest cost on the current
administration; that whatever damage there is in Jubilee House
now is a direct result of their neglect.
The public, on its part, has long thought that the building was
ready for occupation.
It was early on
January 5,
2009 that we saw the smiling faces of President-elect Mills,
then President J. A. Kufuor and John Mahama, vice president of
the current administration, touring Jubilee House in what
one thought was a smooth hand-over ceremony. It turned out that
the smooth hand-over was not to be.
Instead, it turned into a foot-dragging spectacle, where the new
administration of President Mills has managed to postpone the
move to Jubilee House.
Many months have passed. There have been moments during these
months for Ghana to have used the building to cement its image
as a vibrant polity. One occasion was the visit of President
Obama. Another was the celebration of Nkrumah’s centennial.
By the way, Jubilee House contains the site of the residency of
the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It was from this place that he left
for Hanoi and never came back because of the February 24, 1966
coup. What an honor it would have been to have showed this place
to visitors and the public during the centennial celebration of
his birth, if anything to emphasize the uselessness of coups?
But the place was closed to the public to save face for this
administration
And now, we have a situation where matters
will be further compounded . We will demolish buildings in the area, that are of
architectural significance, and beautiful when preserved as
historical landmarks, for a newly constructed guard house or
barracks. But worse, we are ready to forsake the commemorative
name of “Jubilee House”, of our Ghana@50 celebration, for “Flag Staff
House”!
Yes, Kwame Nkrumah lived in Flag Staff House, but he would not
be happy to note in his grave that there was nothing that marked
our 50th year celebration of independence.
As my dead mother loved to say mockingly, “choose your pick” when she knew
you were about to make an obvious bad decision, despite every
sensible advice given on the matter.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, October 02, 2009
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
email a copy of the web page to
publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.
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