“Your attitude, plus the successes you generate, will help our government and people overcome the challenging times that we face.”

Those were part of President John Mahama’s words to newly engaged appointees last Monday, and he was on point with the admonition.

It is instructive that the President’s words are coming at the heels of a government appointee’s assault on a driver.

Over the years, some government appointees have failed to live up to the standards demanded of persons holding high-notched public positions.

As we compose this commentary, the Airport Police are investigating a report made by the driver of the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Free Zones Board regarding an alleged assault on the former.

It is regrettable that some government appointees would conduct themselves in a manner, which disqualifies them from being considered as role models. No parent would want their children or wards to come anywhere near appointees whose off-putting conducts are not only a blemish on their reputations, but ones which should be despised and sneered at.

Such contagious conducts taint the image of government and rob it of the respect those running the affairs of the state should wield.

It is even more worrying when such personalities exhibit a proclivity for pulling weapons at the least provocation.

There is no doubt that such persons do not regard the offices they hold as positions, which go with acceptable etiquette.

Whilst such miscreants manning public offices lack manners, they also look down on the people they serve and work with. It is not difficult to identify them because their smelly conducts always stand out. When addressing issues of public interest they are unable to couch their remarks with decorum, preferring rather to tread the path of polemics.

We did not know that the President had been observing the inappropriate conduct of some of his appointees until he delivered his admonition. By his counsel to the newly sworn-in ministers and others, there is no doubt that he knows that some of his appointees are acerbic with their tongues. But we thought as many other Ghanaians might; it is an attribute he does not frown on.

Why has he never taken action against such persons, given their numbers in his team? Perhaps this silent acquiescence of the misconduct of government appointees has given credence to the speculation on the political plane that juicy government appointments await those who excel in insulting political opponents.

We pray that the President meant it when he created the impression of abhorrence for inappropriate conduct by his appointees. If the President really abhors uncouth appointees who have no regard for etiquettes, the case of the appointee who purportedly descended upon his driver with slaps and blows—a case in the station diary of the Airport Police Station—awaits his necessary action.