It was characteristically hyped and tactfully engineered to keep away the unfulfilled promises of President Mills such as the elimination of schools under trees.
School children were made to line up some streets after rehearsing the �oseiyie� chorus, a perfect veneer for the many troubles their parents are beset with under the Mills presidency. It was a special tour by the president of the nation�s capital and its adjoining parts in a year he dubbed �Action Year�, although the reality on the ground suggests that it is arguably the dullest so far since he assumed the reins of leadership.
Those who decided upon the routes to be used by the president did a wonderful job of concealing the schools which are tucked away in the belly of the Greater Accra Region, perhaps the overseas territory of Accra.
Those were difficult moments for the reluctant teachers who had to adhere to the instructions to get the pupils to smile and pretend all was well with them; free uniforms, uninterrupted school feeding programme and highly motivated teachers. Hmm!
Even as the kids choreographed their parts in what was, by all standards, a circus performance, their colleagues in some parts of the same region were making do with the shelter provided by an assortment of trees as they constantly prayed against a deluge.
President Mills loves showcasing non-existent programmes even if that means cutting the sod for a foot-bridge over a major dual carriageway under construction, one of the many started by his predecessor. No wonder he does not decline any offer which comes laden with sod-cutting opportunities.
Many Ghanaians would bet there is nothing like free school uniforms for kids in elementary schools as he told the General Assembly of the United Nations when he had that rare opportunity of addressing the august assemblage of world leaders.
A respectable number of Ghanaians have wondered whether the president�s minders keep him updated about the true picture of the country he swore an oath to govern.
When the former Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive Officer, in his attack of the National Security Coordinator, alleged that the President is fed with lies by the retired Lt. Col., we were a bit skeptical about the veracity of the claim.
We are now beginning to understand what the president is going through at the hands of those who are supposed to brief him about how his �Better Ghana Agenda� package is missing the target and indeed listing badly on choppy political waters.
Planning such a Greater Accra Regional tour by ignoring schools under trees is not in the interest of education. Coming at a time when Nana Akufo Addo announced his policy position of putting the Ghanaian teacher first casts a long shadow over the President�s so-called love for education which so far remains a pipedream only fit for the campaign trail.
What the President did not see during his tour would remain the most important things for him to tackle if he considers protecting his integrity from public opprobrium. But with his minders deciding that, these, including schools under trees, and there are many of them, should be kept in the backburners, we are still not out of the political doldrums of cheap propaganda.
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