Should the president’s wife be paid? It is this issue that is upsetting Ghana right now. Parliament recently adopted an amendment allowing President Akufo-Addos and his Vice-President’s wife to receive compensation, but as the country is in the midst of an economic crisis and protests erupted last week, the measure goes wrong with the people.
Normally, this is a measure that may have gone unnoticed. The president and his vice-president decided to grant compensation to their respective wives close to 40,000 euros for four years, in their capacity as the country’s first and second ladies.
But now, more recently, in the face of rising public debt and the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, the Ghanaian government has introduced new taxes that, along with rising fuel prices, have angered the population. Several demonstrations erupted since the beginning of the week, during which slogans such as “Ghanaians die, Akufo-Addo wake!”.
The controversy over these benefits for the presidents’ wives therefore comes at the wrong time for the government. In addition, in the local press, members of the opposition follow each other to condemn the illegality of this measure. According to them, only a person performing an official public function can claim to be paid by the state. They threaten to take the government to court.
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