Kenkey Politics vs Cheap Populism

For the President to undertake a popularity testing mission by buying balls of kenkey at Nima, a predominantly tuo zaafi-eating suburb, it suggests the unnerving times he is passing through at the helm. While last Tuesday�s mission through Mamobi, Nima and Malam Atta markets was, by and large, a mission to interrogate and shame the assertion by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communication Director, based on a Ghana News Agency (GNA) report that kenkey is fast fleeing out of the reach of the common-man, as it hits the GH�1 notch in some parts of Accra, his spokesperson, Koku Anyidoho, claimed it was a popularity testing assignment. Perhaps, it was a two-pronged mission outside the confines of the old slave dungeon to enable the old professor to exercise his fatigued limbs. If the President is satisfied that kenkey is still cheap and within the effective reach of the average Ghanaian as deductable from his smiles of contentment, he must be living in a fool�s paradise. Has he paused for a moment to find out how much an average chamber and hall accommodation costs, how much it costs to transport maize from Techiman to Accra and to what extent the falling cedi against the dollar is affecting all prices in the country? That is the issue and not the useless politically-choreographed trip to selected markets. As for the results of the popularity test, his spokesperson/editor-at-large of the Informer paper of the �let-them-dare� infamy, said the obvious�an overwhelming endorsement of the President. We could not have expected anything different from a man who has mastered the art of abrasive propaganda. President Mills has become so sensitive and somewhat intolerant of issues raised by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that no sooner had the party�s Communications allude to the all-time high price of GH�1 for a ball of kenkey in some parts of Accra than he hit the road on a mission. Nana Akomea based his disclosures upon a Ghana News Agency (GNA) report and could not have conjured the story anyway. Besides, it is a fact that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture also undertook a survey and established the varying prices of the staple Accra food of between 50p and GH�1. At Adabraka/Freetown, not far from the Catholic Bookshop on the right, as one drives from the TUC area, there is a kenkey joint where GH�1 balls of kenkey are available. In any case, we find it absurd that the President would seek to ascertain the price of kenkey in a part of the city where the staple food is tuo zaafi. We are also amazed that the President did not buy kenkey from Akweleys or Akorkors but Daavis. President Mills should take into consideration the fact of the shrinking size of kenkey. The 50p ball of kenkey has lost its size since the price appreciated to that level. President Mills did not also find out the price of fish since one cannot consume kenkey without the protein source, especially since the latter costs more than the former. Checking the price of kenkey should have been left in the hands of the Otukunors, Hannah Bisiws and not the President. Can�t we give the Presidency a dose of respectability?