[ 2019-03-08 ]

Letter from Africa: The country where everyone is expected to be late

In our series of letters from African writers,
Ghanaian journalist and former government minister
Elizabeth Ohene explains why clock-watching in
Ghana is a waste of time.

When Japan's Olympics Minister Yoshitaka Sakurada
was forced to make a public apology after arriving
three minutes late to a parliamentary meeting, I
wondered how many ministers of state here in Ghana
thanked God they were not Japanese.

It is accepted practice in Ghana that public
officials are late to functions. Indeed, they are
expected to be late.

I know how entrenched this is in our attitudes
because when I was a minister of state I would
regularly arrive at functions at the scheduled
time and find that nobody was expecting me to have
arrived on time.

A number of us in that government thought if we
could get the president to arrive on time for
functions, it would change the culture.

So, the minders of then-President John Kufuor set
about on an ambitious scheme to get him to be on
time for public functions.

I remember the first time he got there at the
scheduled 09:30, there was near pandemonium; there
were diplomats running to get to their seats,
there were dignitaries rushing madly and there
were traditional chiefs abandoning their usual
majestic pace of walking and trying to get to
their seats as a bemused President Kufuor looked
on.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Ghanaians joke about their
timekeeping, saying GMT stands for "Ghana Maybe
Time"

We were determined to persist with getting the
president to functions on time in the hope that if
people realised the president would be at the
function at the advertised time, everybody else
would endeavour to get there on time.

It was not a pleasant experience.

Time experiment 'abandoned'

I had always felt deep embarrassment that
diplomats sent to our country seemed to spend so
much time waiting for functions to start but I
then discovered they were often late themselves.
I am ashamed to admit we abandoned the experiment
after three tries.

The main arguments against continuing came from
the protocol and security people.

They insisted the president should not be taken to
places that were not ready.

At his inauguration, our current President, Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, bemoaned the culture of
official functions starting late.

He promised he would set a personal example and be
on time. He has since then been making a special
effort and arrives on time for functions.

This, however, does not appear to have led to much
change in attitude towards time-keeping.
'Crazy traffic'

Meetings scheduled to start at 10:00 routinely
start anything between 45 minutes to an hour
late.


The crazy traffic situation in our towns and
cities probably accounts for some of the lateness,
as it is impossible to predict journey times and
also provides justifiable excuses for arriving
late. But the problem is not only about starting
things on time, there is a journey from my house
to an office where I regularly go for meetings can
take 20 minutes, or 40 minutes or, an hour, or, as
it did on one occasion, one hour and 50 minutes.

But the traffic surely cannot be the explanation
for people arriving for lunch at 16:00 when they
have been invited for 12.30.

And why would your host think it is OK to invite
you for lunch and start serving food at 15:00 or
invite you for dinner at 19:00 and offer you food
at 21:00?
'Get me out of church on time'

This culture of total disregard for scheduled time
extends to, and affects, all other parts of our
lives.

My dressmaker promises to make a dress for me in
three weeks and I am lucky to get it in three
months. But the problem is not only about starting
things on time, there is a correspondent problem
of not ending things on time either.

The church I go to advertises and indeed starts at
09:00, but there is no advertised closing time -
and so the service closes at 11:30, or noon, or
13:00 or, as it once happened on a feast day,
15:00.

It is better not to look at your watch on such
occasions.

We are simply not bound by time here.

Source - BBC

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