The issue of whether to pay or not to pay the wives of Presidents and Vice Presidents has over the past few dominated discussions on the airwaves and in the public domain.
With some condemning the decision, others also think it is in the right direction for First and Second Ladies to receive salaries.
Wives of Presidents and Vice Presidents of the Republic of Ghana have been on a monthly allowance scheme since the era of former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufour.
It is said that the late former President Rawlings spearheaded the move to pay allowances to First and Second Ladies and this was implemented by the Kufour administration which saw to the mandatory payment of allowances to Presidents and Vice Presidents’ wives.
In an attempt to formalize the allowances paid to the two most important women in the country, the Akufo-Addo government set up a Committee named Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa-Badu Committee to look into the emoluments of Article 71 holders and the Committee recommendations suggest that First and Second Ladies should officially receive monthly salaries.
But to Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt, there is absolutely nothing as paying allowances to First and Second Ladies in Ghana.
According to him, it is false belief for any person to claim that First and Second Ladies have been receiving allowances.
Making his submissions on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme, Mr. Pratt offered Ghanaians education on what First and Second Ladies have been receiving all this while.
He noted that no allowance has been paid to the First and Second Ladies since the regime of the late Ex-President Rawlings, but rather what they have been receiving is a “gift”.
He cited former President John Agyekum Kufour making lots of donations when in government and part of his acts of charity was to give back to the less privileged and those hospitalized.
To Mr. Pratt, it is wrong for any person to say First Ladies and Second Ladies have been receiving allowances or salaries because that has never been the case.
”I have no idea about any allowance in this world. The little I know about President Kufour is that he made lots of donations. He donated to the sick and so forth…That’s why I’m saying if he make a donation, it’s not allowance. It’s a gift, not allowance”, he emphasized, adding that ”allowance connotes something formal. Allowance is a form of remuneration and so on. It isn’t!”
