Exclusive conversation with a Senior Protocol Officer who travelled with President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo once travelled to France and Belgium for very important meetings, which eventually brought about the European Investment Bank’s large investment in the Development Bank of Ghana.
I travelled with the President on Air France to Paris and then by train to Brussels. We had to pick up passengers in Ouagadougou first.
When we landed there, some airport officials came on board. The President was seated in the front row, middle aisle of business class.
(There was no first class) Other passengers were moving across aisles in front of the President, posing a significant security risk until I intervened, whispering that they were the President.
A tall Burkinabe official who was standing by the toilet just in front of where the president was sitting was looking our way intensely and when I got up to use the bathroom he asked whether that was not the president of Ghana?
I said yes it was and unexpectedly he became angry, asking why a President would be put in such a position. Didn’t we have state planes?
I replied that we had one and it had gone for servicing. It was so embarrassing. Burkinabes know that Ghana is far ahead in terms of development and yet they would not subject their president to that kind of insecurity and discomfort.
We then had to first transit in Paris from the airport to the train station. There was no lounge in the train station.
So here we were, sitting in a crowded Cafe at the train station with no proper secured area and all sorts of people congregating around the President not knowing who he was and some of us in the delegation not having seats. It was a mess. But Akufo-Addo endured it without complaint.
A truly sad point in his presidency was the unfair tag that he was into luxurious travel for the sake of it not caring about the use of tax payer cash. Ironically he was quite the opposite.
There are many more stories like this of President Akufo-Addo’s travels. Unfortunately, because of politics some people were willing to put the President of Ghana at risk. We need to have conversations about this without them being politicised.
Source: Wilberforce Asare/ Asaase Radio
