The Government of Ghana announced 2019 to be the Year of Return, a monumental year to mark a pseudo-exodus of sorts for Africans (read Ghanaians) in the diaspora to come back to their roots. Not to bore you with many details, the whole “christening” of the year was basically a marketing scheme to boost tourism in the country. That is, “if we can get the diasporans to come visit the nation en masse this year – for whatever reasons – we could capitalise on that to convince them to be visiting each year”. To a large extent, it’s worked. December each year since then keeps expanding with more parties and events that are mostly a selling point for the “target audience” to want to come to Ghana, where the fun supposedly is. Although many have complained that this has to some degree contributed to the gentrification of Accra – a topic for another discussion altogether – that is not the most pressing concern for Ghanaians today. Let’s put it simply, what was that Meek Mill video?
In case your blessed eyes have not yet beheld the insanity that is, in the early hours of Monday January 9, 2023, a music video of Meek Mill shot at the Flagstaff House was posted on Instagram. It seems the video was posted by a member of Meek Mill’s team. Now, ust a few days ago US based rapper Meek Mill visited Ghana as one of the artistes billed to perform at the AfroNation concert, although his trip happened to be more of a “year of return” for himself also. The rapper and his team also had the “privilege”, if it still is, of meeting the president at the Flagstaff House. Quite a few people found it unbecoming of a trend that literally anyone with a tint of celebrity status abroad who visited the country was having such unmitigated access to meeting the President. However, that would not be the worst of it, it turns out, after the surfacing of this music video.
Although the video has since been taken down, there are people who managed to download it before the take down. It shows Meek and his entourage walking through various sections of the Flagstaff house doing what, well what you will see in any typical American Hip Hop music video. To some Ghanaians, it is still a mystery how the residence and office of the Head of State of an entire sovereign nation has been metamorphosed into some sort of laughingstock. Questions are being raised about how their cameras were allowed to just any part of the Flagstaff House they so pleased. Aren’t there House protocols enforced by the security staff as to who can do what and where? How did they get access to the “Fellow Ghanaians” podium used in each Presidential address broadcast. The questions only pile up as you reason through the content of the video.
Are Ghanaians Justified To Feel “Othered” In Their Own Country
Despite all these, an even greater concern about our democracy is raised by this video. Over the past year Citizens have seen requests to protest, in accordance with the Public Order Act (Act 491), denied for strange reasons. Thus, restraining them from exercising their constitutional right to protest. Moreover, the Flagstaff House is largely inaccessible to the average Ghanaian. In fact, pictures are not allowed within a certain distance of the Flagstaff House grounds. If this be the case for citizens, how do non-citizens have such unmitigated access and a seeming freedom to transgress and do as they please? Is it truly a government of the people and for the people if the people are constantly “othered” by the actions and inactions of the government?
