Travelling from Accra to Kejeji, capital of the Sene East District in the Brong-Ahafo Region, one of the new districts created in 2012, takes more than nine hours, using a V8.
Accra to Atebubu is a smooth journey, but it is very uncomfortable continuing the journey from Atebubu to Kwame Danso, capital of the Sene West district, because the road is rough, untarred and very dusty.
It even turns out to be a near-hell of experience travelling further from Kwame Danso to Kejeji, the capital of a district with no single tarred road. But now, the Mahama government has commissioned a vote-inducing surfacing work to be carried out on the road. Contractors were on site at the time of our visit.
Premuase is a very popular village in the area, not just because the next town ahead of it is Kejeji, the district capital, but it is because a very important person is languishing there, living virtually as a beggar, thus becoming an object of scorn to her fellow villagers.
The first thing one is greeted with upon entering the Premuase village is extreme poverty and deprivation. But that is not more of an issue to many of the villagers. The major issue which is a constant talk in the town is the pathetic living conditions of a particular woman at the village.
The villagers find it difficult to understand why this woman should be living like a virtual beggar even though she is ‘the president’s mother.’
President John Dramani Mahama calls this woman Maame Dansoa because that was how his late father, E.A. Mahama, a Northern Regional Commissioner in the government of Kwame Nkrumah, used to call her.
According to Maame Akosua Dansoa, she took care of President Mahama and the rest of his siblings during their childhood, bathing them, washing their clothes, cooking for them and sending them to school.
Maame Dansoa’s younger mother, Auntie Grace, was married to President Mahama’s father. She was brought into the late Mr Mahama’s household to take care of the domestic affairs.
Little John Mahama and his siblings from the same mother had to be made a part of their father’s household, to live with their other siblings from a different mother, Auntie Grace, under the care of Maame Dansoa.
Maame Dansoa stayed with the Mahama family in Tamale and Accra for almost twenty four years, during which the late E. A Mahama showed her much affection because she was a humble girl and a very good cook, whose meals the family would not sacrifice for any other person’s meals.
One very important moment she still cherishes was when President Mahama’s late father showed her Queen Elizabeth, from England, when the British Monarch visited Ghana.
Maame Dansoa parted company with the Mahama family after the death of President Mahama’s father, and life has never been easy since then.
Maame Dansoa now lives with her partially blind husband, Opanyin Akwasi Desi, at the Premuase village, where a ramshackle, mud structure, with no door and comparable to a hen coop, serves as their house.
All her male children are dead, and so she does not have anyone to put up a more decent building where she can comfortably lay her head, especially during the rainy season.
Maame Dansoa says she has told President Mahama about this issue, at least on three occasions. First was when he visited her at the village as NDC Running Mate during the 2008 electioneering campaign; also when he visited her as President and NDC Presidential Candidate during the 2012 electioneering campaign; and finally when she visited President Mahama in Accra during the 2012 Presidential Election Petition trial.
“He told me everything will be fine after the court case but up till now I have not seen anything. I don’t know whether it is somebody’s doing or his own decision,” Maame Dansoa said in Twi.
With dislocated waist, which makes it impossible to do any farming activity, Maame Dansoa and her partially blind husband now virtually live like beggars, surviving on the generosity of others who once a while offer them some tubers of yam, and also give them rubbers to serve as a roof for their hen coop-like house.
This is what has made ‘the president’s mother’ an object of scorn among the people at the Premuase village. ‘You call yourself the president’s mother, but look at you. We are all suffering but we are even better off.’ This is how Maame Dansoa is ridiculed by the villagers.
According to her husband, Opanyin Akwasi Desi, even when somebody has provided some tubers of yam for them, how to get money to buy some fish is even a major problem.
Maame Danso only gets occasional financial help from President Mahama, as and when duty sends him to the area, and she is lucky to meander her way through the crowd to catch the eye of her son. “I once met him at Bassa and the last time, I met him at Kejeji. He gave me money and said Maame Dansoa, take this to buy some ‘koko.’ I took it and thanked him,” she narrated.
According to her husband, each occasional financial help from the president is able to sustain the family for about two weeks. Opanyin Akwasi Desi feels a bit embittered when he hears reports like ‘President Mahama has bought a house and cars for Akua Donkor.’
But, Maame Dansoa is not embittered about President Mahama, even though he visited her at the village, took pictures of her and promised to assist her find a place to lay her head.
She is happy that she had been able to provide care for somebody who is now the president of the country. “I am happy I was able to raise Mahama. At least, I did not use my ‘witchcraft’ to destroy him and he is now the president,” she said.
But, Maame Dansoa has been wondering if her neglect by the president is somebody’s orchestration or the president’s own decision.
As it stands now, she is only praying that President Mahama will remember her and come to her aid in this trying moment of her life. She, at least, wants to sleep in a bit of a decent house before she joins her Maker.
Maame Dansoa says even though she is suffering, she can’t force the president to support her. “If you want help from somebody and its not coming, you only have to wait and pray. But now things are hard for me; I’m suffering; I need help,” she begged.
Source: The New Statesman
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WHY CAN'T SOME PEOPLE BE REASONABLE AND REALISTIC. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MAHAMA AS PRESIDENT BUT HUMAN NATURE.SOME PEOPLE APPRECIATE THE CARE AFFORDED THEM BY OTHERS WERE THEIR PARENTS OUT OF THEIR BUSY SCHEDULE ENTRUST THE CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN TO NANNIES.SOME OF THESE NANNIES CAN BE ANGELS OR DEMONS IN RELATION TO THE CARE OF THIER CHILDREN. IF THIS WOMAN HAS REALLY BEEN A PART OF MAHAMA'S LIFE AS A NANNY, HMMMM. I KNOW NANNIES WHO HAVE BECOME MILLIONAIRES DUE TO THE APPRECIATION OF THEIR BOSSES.MAHAMA COULD HAVE AT LEAST HELP THIS WOMAN INSTEAD OF DISHING OUT V8 TO CHIEFS WHO NEVER PLAYED A PART IN HIS LIFE.ONLY TIME WILL TELL.
She suffer till thy kingdom come. Even an ediot knows that the president buried his biological mother two months ago, that so called mother should also die, who cares. What ***barred word***.
Where is this coming from at this time of the countries election year? NPP y do u do such grave disservice to the pp of this nation yet u want to rule the nation. What do u seek to achieve with a story like this? Shame on u NPP guys.JM tsano
Charity begins at home... empty promises! This is not garbage news, it is a reflection of the character of the person standing for president!!! He thinks if us only when he needs something.
ONLY DAILY STATEMENT AND DAILY GARBAGE CAN PUBLISH THIS ***barred word***. IF JM SHOULD DO SOMETHING FOR THIS WOMAN, YOU SAME CRaZY GUYS WILL START THE AGANDA OF VOTE BUYING AND ABUSE OF STATE FUNDS. JM TOASOOO
If this is true, then shame to the Mahama family, I mean his siblings. Even if JM is not the president, they could have contributed something for the woman. I know pple who take care of their nannies and care takers. I entreat all to do something for the pple who contributed to our lives when we were growing up.
Food for thought.
nk.w.a.si.a.s.e.m.
HAHHA THIS IS NOT A SHAME TO THE PRESIDENT. THIS SHOWS THAT THE PRESIDENT IS A GOOD MAN N HE HAS NOT USED TAX PAYERS MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF HIS FAMILIES. IF ITS TRUE THE WOMAN NEEDED HELP AND ASK THE PRESIDENT FOR HIS HELP, HE WOULD HAVE NEVER TURNED HIS BACK AT HER KORAAA NOT MY MAHAMA. A HUMBLE MAN LIKE MAHAMA CAN NOT EVEN HURT A FLY. IF SHE NEEDS HELP FOR REAL I KNOW SHE WILL GET IT. MY LADY LORDINA SELF CAN HANDLE THAT. THE MAHAMA BROTHERS SELF CAN DO IT. EVEN ME WHO IS NOT PART OF THE FAMILY CAN TAKE CARE OF HER KNOWING WHO SHE IS. STATESMAN, ANYWAY WHAT DID YOU GIVE HER? KONKONSA
I think John Mahama must quickly ask the wife to go and look for this woman and settle her in at least 2 bedroom flat at her village. This is a shame to the president - how can he say he loves and care for women when you cannot even help your nanny who took good care of you? This is a terrible blow to the image of the president and it will take a long time to erase. Where is the humanity, the care, the love that he talks of? I am scandalized at the insensitivity of the number one gentleman of the country. JDM must sacrifice 3 months of his salary to put up a decent house for this woman. By the way where are the other siblings of JDM? Does it mean none of the 5 do remember Maame Dansoa for all the services she rendered to them? How come not a sinlge one of them do remember Maame Dansoa? They must all bow their heads in shame. The bane of the forgetten house help in the house of E A Mahama.