|
TANGO WITH AN ECOWAS
EMBASSY
N. B. Andrews
November 06, 2015
There is enough empirical evidence to support this
assertion about sub-Saharan Africa; nowhere is the
day brighter or night darker- it is often plagued
with cataclysms of biblical proportions.....most of
the time self inflicted.
My latest tango with an ECOWAS Embassy in Ghana has
caused me to play back the above ad infinitum.
"I am busy; you are wasting my time and tying up my
phone. I am talking to my Foreign Minister and my
President. Call me some other time; I have important
things to do", said the Embassy Official.
"When should I call you back?", I asked.
"Oh, I will call you back after 12 noon, if I have
time".
My watch read 9 am.
At 2 pm, she called to find out why I had sent
people to her office. I assured her that I had sent
no one to her office; that I was minding my own
business in my office and had no knowledge of where
her embassy is located.
At 4 pm, she called to apologise for her earlier
insolence.
It was unclear whether the apology was for the salvo
at 9 am or the 2 pm one; apology accepted- but this
goes beyond the individual or personal.
The issue at stake is simple but important.
A paralysed ECOWAS national ( from a work related
spine injury) had arrived in Ghana from his home
country for surgical treatment but with a one way
plane ticket.
I refuse to speculate why, as over the years, they
have always arrived with a return ticket.
However, his travelling companion (his nephew) came
with a return ticket.
No prior notification of his date or time of arrival
was given. We heard he had arrived when the
commercial plane touched down and there were no
arrangements in place to get his stretcher off the
aircraft or an ambulance to take him to a hospital.
The plot then begins to get murky.
His scanty medical records had completely
misrepresented the extent and severity of his
clinical condition. And the records were from a
University Teaching Hospital- what a world!
We then delivered the care which he required; this
took 30 days even though his budgeted care was only
for 10 days.
Over the next several weeks while he was receiving
medical care, all our attempts to reach his
employers and family, in order to plan his return
journey, proved futile.
One company official responded to our emails and
informed us that he was in the US and therefore was
not in a position to assist us in any way.
After he had been under our care for 30 days and was
stable and well enough to travel, we contacted the
embassy of his home country in Accra.
To their credit, they sent an official to see him in
hospital. His status as their national was
confirmed.
A few days later, a follow up call to the embassy
yielded bizarre results.
That was when we started hearing the twaddle- the
forte of public servants in our part of the world.
"Why are you calling him our national? Do not do
that. He is not a government official so why should
the Embassy get involved?
"He is a private individual working for a private
company," was the first preposterous statement from
the official on the embassy phone in our country.
I resisted the urge to utter a few audible
imprecations and continued thus,
"Well, this involves the return home of your
national and we have documentation which you have
verified; do you not think it falls within your
remit?
Can you not assist by contacting the airline and
start negotiating on his behalf?
Can you not track down his relatives and employers
in your country- his home country- and coordinate
his return?",
And yes, I was thinking- can you not think a bit and
get off your lazy backside and do some real work
instead of kissing officialdom in the same area in
order to secure your thirty pieces of silver.
In our region, our political class and public
servants very often have an instinctive and crass
contempt for the general public; there is a load of
evidence to support this.
Their behavior regularly offers a brazen challenge
to conventional notions of sanity and propriety.
They act with impunity......almost as if they are in
charge of a donkey or mule sanctuary, and if they
are, then a not infrequent mule kick is in order.
On many occasions the incompetence of these
officials has led to wantom loss of life,
significant individual grief and suffering.
They are seldom held accountable; they know so and
continue to think it will remain so.
Are we now to teach embassy officials their job or
are we simply to accept the drivel that they put out
at us?
My patience is for my patients; my cup runneth over.
I shall document; name and shame and engage, with
the ferocity associated with the octagon.
So let the tango begin; after a few more steps we
might have to name the embassy and the official.
If her apology was sincere then she should perform
her duties with alacrity and get her national back
home with dispatch.
His embassy owes this to him!
N.B. ANDREWS
Blebo We- Sakumo
Nov 6, 2015.
|
