...Minister of Information buys property in Texas
...Ambassador to US acquires huge tracts of Virginia land

African leaders have a long way to go if their resources are not used to improve the lives of their people. The mass struggles currently going on between the people and their governments on the continent is about leaders abusing their stay in office and trample on the goodwill of the people for their own selfish interests.

The Africa Standard Magazine can report that one of Ghana's young government ministers, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa purchased three months ago a 130,000 dollar house in Texas through Real Estate Agents, Bay Property Management, based in Friendswood, near Houston Texas. Mr Okuzdeto Ablakwa's 4 bedroom house, which is located near Forest Creek, with chandelier lights and Electric sliding doors, is located in one of the quiet residential and most sought after areas of Texas.

Eyes brows will indeed be raised over this house purchase, at a time the young minister's political party in his native Ghana, the ruling National Democratic Congress is involved in leadership contest in a country where majority of the citizens lived on less than a dollar a day.

Ablakwa is a vociferous supporter and close aide of the sitting president, President John Atta Mills and viewed as a future leader of the party. Questions must be asked how come Mr Ablakwa could afford a huge sum of money to acquire this property? The young minister we learn recently got married, in one of the society weddings of the year, last year, to his wife, whose family has a home in the USA.

Further investigations reveal that Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is not the only Ghanaian Government appointee seeking and acquiring property n the United States.

Currently some Ghanaians in Virginia are concerned over the land buying spree of the Ghanaian Ambassador Mr Daniel Agyekum who has acquired huge tracts of land on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia and have already complained to the authorities in Ghana calling for him to be removed. At a community meeting in Charlottesville, majority were of the opinion that the Ambassador was spending more time visiting and viewing properties in Virginia and surrounding areas, rather than attending to the welfare of the Ghanaian people.

The African Standard believes that African Governments must take firm action against leaders that indulge in questionable behavior and that developmental issues must be the primary concern and not the acquisition of properties.

Edward Thomas Managing Editor
wulembaafrica@yahoo.com