The now suspended Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) for the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly exhibited ample impropriety and abuse of office to warrant the President’s decision to crack the whip.
Ghanaians awaited government response when the subject made it to social media and trended like wildfire through a dry forest and they were not disappointed.
Abdul-Mumin Issah, the suspended MCE, had a rare opportunity to show deference to a police officer on duty but blew it by rather insulting the man who was only enforcing the law.
President Akufo Addo’s response to Abdul-Mumin Issah’s megalomania was swift and precise and left nobody in doubt about how in the face of evidence against his appointees, the President would not spare the rod.
What else can a President, who has consistently exhibited deference to security and public officials, do in the face of such naked abuse of power and crudeness?
Phew! But for the undeniable audio, we could have written the episode off as fiction and engineered to have the MCE hanged. And to think that he could utter remarks which are incompatible with a government appointee, added to our emotional anguish.
The misconduct of the MCE would have dealt a terrible blow to the morale of security personnel especially, police officers, had the President not acted the way he did. For now, the morale of police officers is sky high and there is no doubt that they would work even harder.
Had the MCE been observant, he should have discovered that there is a new direction in policing since IGP/Dr. George Akufo Dampare took the reins of this foremost internal security department of state. Public officials who breach the law are not spared, the first time we are witnessing such sincere policing in the country. When the law respects some, and does the contrary for others, then policing is in trouble and growth is denied the country. We must build a Ghana where police officers are allowed to enforce the law sincerely and dauntlessly.
The uncouth attitude put up by the suspended MCE to the police officer is coming at the backdrop of the Ghana Police Service working hard to protect lives and property in the course of which many officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. The last thing Ghanaians would contain from public officers or appointees is the rubbish remarks by the suspended MCE.
A trail has been blazed by the President and this should be emulated by future leaders of this country. Government appointees are not above law. We must all contribute towards the building a better Ghana for our generation and future ones.