Accra - Reports reaching The Accra Mail indicate that a Ghana Airways flight to New York at the weekend took off, leaving Foreign Minister James Victor Gbeho stranded at the Kotoka International Airport.

Minister Gbeho was livid when he discovered to his own embarrassment that the plane had taken off before he got to the airport. He strode to the airport terminal late, perhaps having been held up by important matters of state, expecting the aircraft, full of paid up passengers, to be on the tarmac awaiting his arrival.

The airline itself has taken a lot of flak for what is seen as its tardiness and has been at pains to salvage its sunken image. Ghanair has been criticised for undue delays and abrupt cancellation of flights, sometimes attributed to politicians' influence Sources close to Ghana Airways told The Accra Mail that it's about time our public officials began to show respect for time and corporate bodies. "Ghana Airways owes its existence to its passengers."

Others wondered what Gbeho was going to do in New York when OAU summit was being held in Togo. Some asked why he got to the airport late. "He has himself to blame," the source told The Accra Mail. Public officials, especially politicians want to be treated with kid gloves while they hold everyone else in contempt. When an African politician is rightly humiliated, the expectation is that heads will begin to roll, but elsewhere, the politician will rather apologize.