Our Homeland Ghana Needs More Politicians Who Empathise With The Needy And Genuinely Care About Their Plight

It did not come as a surprise to me, when I read media reports that the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Dr. Amoako Tufuor, had been so affected emotionally by the answer given him - upon enquiring from a female senior high school student why she had slipped an egg into her pocket instead of eating it with the rest of her lunch - that he literally shed tears.

Apparently - if news reports of the incident are to be believed that is - the said student told Dr. Amoako Tufuor that she decided to save the egg and have it for her supper. One presumes that it meant not having to go  to bed on an empty stomach for her.

Dr. Amoako Tufuor is that rare thing: a Ghanaian politician who speaks the truth openly, no matter how unpalatable his party might find it, and  actually cares about the plight of the less privileged in society.

One knows for a fact that when he was in charge of the school feeding programme under President Kufuor, the moment he learnt about the benefits of moringa, for example, he immediately decided to plant some on his own farmland to inspire other farmers to do same  - in the hope that it would  boost its production and eventually  ensure that moringa powder as a food supplement added to meals, would be available to benefit school children throughout Ghana.

He is a most remarkable human being - a patriot, a non-tribalistic politician and a kind gentleman who is always ready to go out of his way to help those in need. That is not to say that he is without fault. None of us is - and as we all know saints live only in heaven: not on the planet Earth.

Typical of the dog-eat-dog nature of Ghanaian politics, that is the nature of the decent gentleman whose enemies at one stage tried to frame him up, for the sins of an 'accountant' he employed at the school feeding programme's national headquarters, when he was in charge of the programme - sadly,  he more or less employed the fellow as a kind gesture to those who recommended that particular 'accountant' to him.

One's hope, is that his frankness  about some of  the teething problems currently facing the free senior high school initiative, will not lead to some of  the NPPs hard-as-nails and criticism-averse extremists publicly attacking Dr. Amoako Tufuor. That would be most unfortunate - for our homeland Ghana needs more politicians who empathise  with the needy: and genuinely care about their plight. May God bless, protect and guide all the Dr. Amoako Tufuors in Ghana's political world (across the spectrum) always.