Naadu's $48,000 Gold Watch To Obama's Wife

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday January 21, 2011
At a time when her husband, President John Evans Atta Mills is preaching against profligate expenditure and ostentation lifestlye, his wife Ernestina Naadu Mills was competing with the King of oil-rich Saudi Arabia to dish out an expensive gift worth $48,000 to Michelle Obama, wife of President Barack Obama of the United States of America.

The information about the gifts was published in the White House Federal Register and quickly hit all major news outlets across the world.

According to sources at the White House the gift worth $48,000 equivalent to GH¢ 72, 449.8 was a Backes and Strauss watch designed with the Black Star of Ghana and crafted in 18 karat gold with the strap encrusted in “diamonds and leather” when President Obama and his family made a historic visit to Ghana in July 2009.

However report monitored on Joy FM at press time claimed that Mills handlers have denied the media report about the lavish gold gift that has landed in US archives.

According to unnamed Castles sources quoted by Joy FM, the gold watch did not come from Mrs. Naadu Mills, but rather it was a present by Bits and Straws and the African Watch Trading Company on behalf of Ghana.

However analysts were of the opinion that how can foreign firm make a presentation on behalf of Ghana if there was no benefit assigned.

The report from the US capital, Washington stated that in his first year as US President, Barack Obama, his family and administration members were showered with more than $300,000 in gifts from Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

The Federal Register reported Tuesday that King Abdullah gave some $34,500 worth of presents to Obama, some $146, 200 worth to First Lady Michelle Obama and $ 7,275 worth to their children Malia and Sasha.

The monarch offered a total of $108,245 worth of gifts to White House staff, presents valued at $23,400 dollars to a senior US diplomatic interpreter and gifts estimated at $12,000 to the US charge d'Affaires in Riyadh, Saudi capiatal.

Among the gifts Obama received from Abdullah were a "large desert scene on a green veined marble base featuring figurines of gold palm trees and camels" and a large brass and glass clock by Jaeger-LeCoultre, according to the register.

The Saudi King gave the First Lady a ruby and diamond jewelry set worth $132,000 as well as a pearl necklace with a value of $14,200, according to the register.

Their children also received jewelry worth thousands of dollars in addition to books and DVDs.

Second in value to the generous gifts showered on the Obamas by a foreign dignitary was Ghana’s Ernestina Naadu Mills, $48,000 gift to Michelle Obama a Backes and Strauss "Black Star of Ghana" watch, "crafted in 18 karat gold with diamonds and leather," the register said.

Other ‘poorer’ presidents such as China’s Hu Jintao gave Obama "a framed and matted fine silk embroidery depicting a portrait study of the First Family" valued at $20,000, according to the register.

Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of then Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan, gave Michelle Obama a pearl necklace valued at $9,700.

Obama got a bronze statue of a girl releasing a flock of doves valued at 8,000 dollars from Israeli President Shimon Peres.

While Ghanaians are wondering what happened to the traditional Kente stole and cloth it is recalled that since the Mills administration came to power it has been lavishing generously on foreign countries and dignitaries.

On January 24, 2010, the government through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni presented $3 million and other relief items to the government of Haiti when earthquake disaster struck in January 12, 2010 bringing that country to its knees.

No appreciation came to the Ghanaian people for show of magnanimity.

However, some critics are of the view that the First Lady made wrong move because the Obama family in their view did not need such expensive gifts as they are already well-to-do and the United States, the richest country in the world frowns on and legally bars any US government official from receiving a present from a foreign government.

Naadu’s $48,000 gift will be sent to the National Archives.

President Obama and others accepted the gifts because "non-acceptance would cause embarrassment to donor and US government," according to the register.