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CJA Demonstrates Against Ex-gratia Package
Audrey Micah, Ghanadot
Accra, Feb 3, Ghanadot - The Committee for Joint Action (CJA)
members, on Tuesday, led a demonstration to gripe against what
they said was the outrageous retirement package for former
President John Agyekum Kufuor.
This is the first public demonstration of the outrage over a
package that Parliament had approved and which was viewed by
some as extravagant end of service benefit for the ex-president.
Meanwhile, Ghanadot has learned that the end-of service benefit
was a package for both the Executive and Legislative arms of
government, and that the report
by the Chinery-Hesse Committee
was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
as a possible plan of remuneration for former African officials.
The Chinery-Hesse committee
proposed an emolument package which included six
chauffeur-driven vehicles, two houses, a lump sum payment
amounting to GH¢460,000 among others for the president.
The protest that has resulted was attended by hundreds of people
clad in red bands around their wrists and head gears, who
marched through the principal streets of Accra, carrying
placards with inscriptions some of which read: 'Kufuor wants to
chop Nyafu, Nyafu'; 'Kufuor there is only one President'
and 'Prez Mills, Make Ghana Corruption-free', Kufuor wants to
kill us, No motorcade for Kufuor, among others.
Mr. Akakpo, the communications
expert who explained the origin of the presidential package said
to the media yesterday that:
“The full report was released to
the President in December 2008 and has been the cause of
intense, sometimes misguided public debate, because it appears
that many people speaking on the issue have not gone through the
whole 181-page report."
For several moments, the protestors rendered streets joining the
Kwame Nkrumah Circle gridlocked as they swarmed through. They
were escorted by a heavy band of police officers most of whom
were unarmed.
Prior to hitting the streets, the group met at the Freedom and
Justice Park where they converged for the day’s journey.
Leading members of the group told the press a number of
reasons why Parliament must review the emolument package for the
ex-President without delay
In an interview with Ghanadot, some members of the group
disclosed that Ghana needs so much in terms infrastructure and
employment for the youth and that for a single person to be
given such a huge ex-gratia is a doom for the nation.
But according to
Mr. Akakpo,
“the emoluments package is in
keeping with ensuring that that a president out-of office does
not suffer a lowering of standards and is sufficiently resourced
to enable him to play his rightful role in society.”
People in the protest had a different view. They said it would
be rather hypocritical for the ex-President who had declared
Ghana bankrupt by signing up to the Highly Indebted Poor Country
(HIPC) initiative to want to receive such luxurious benefits.
The above view
seems to contradict Mr. Akakpo's assertion at his press
conference in which he said:
“People seem to have lost sight
that the Report covered a lot more than ex-gratia awards and
concerned the conditions of service of more than 600
constitutional office holders,” he said.
The spokesman for the CJA, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. in an interaction
with the media in Accra said former president Kufuor must be
given a more self-effacing package to “reflect the reality of
our economic situation.”
Mr. Pratt maintained that the retirement package for Mr. Kufuor
is outrageous and said the group would push for President Mills
to call for a review of the package immediately.
A petition was later presented to the Chief of Staff, Martye
Newman, at the Castel, Osu, pointing specifically their demands
and proposals for Mr Kufuor and the other ex-government
functionaries of the just ended regime.
Ghanadot
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