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@Eric, I don't think any of the critics are conjecturing that Akufo Addo hasn't done anything. No he's done something, but his achievements certainly trail far behind the amount of faith and confidence that the good people of Ghana had in him due to how he and Bawumia portrayed themselves to us. Secondly, his achievements are very disproportionate to the opportunities he has had in terms of the cash in flows that Ghana has received in his tenure, whether from the unregulated massive borrowing, grants and support from COVID 19 pandemic issues, Ghana's resources, excessive tax imposition, raising of duties etc. Also, it's a very lame argument that people make attributing government's total failure to COVID and Ukraine war. In comparison with the western world and other countries which had protracted lockdowns, massive death tolls and more destruction from COVID, what did Ghana really suffer? Rather, those countries that were more hit directly made huge donations to us, so essentially we benefitted financially from COVID more than the negatives we suffered. Also, Ukraine war definitely had a general effect on the world's economy due to break in the value chain of certain products, sanctions and counter sanctions. But the war affected the west more and that was the key contributor to the problems they had in their economies including inflation, energy hikes etc. This is because the west and Russia and Ukraine are more interdependent on critical sectors of their economies. COVID, despite the hard hit didn't destroy economies of the west as much as the russian Ukrainian war did to them. In spite of all these events, none of those directly affected countries experienced a decline in their economies, they encountered setbacks which they rapidly figured out solutions. In our case, we were just bystanders who suffered a little effect of the wind, however, got massive support though as a result of that, yet we went ahead to fall completely, dirtied ourselves in the mud of economic failure to the extent that government had to run to IMF contrary to their earlier bragging, forcefully take part the people's monies in thier custody etc. This is simply a failure attributable to mismagement, incompetence, excessive corruption and the fact that people in government took advantage of COVID and the war to intentionally do things in their personal favour knowing that they had those events to apportion the blames to. If indeed we were solid before these events, the worst we will have suffered is a setback on our growth rate and not a total breakdown. Of course if you have built a flamboyant mansion on a sand, indicating no proper foundation, any unusual wind will expose you. But if you wisely lay a strong foundation on a rocky ground and build gradually upon it, the severest wind will not easily pull down your entire structure. Government rather was everywhere borrowing and signing up to euro bonds prior to COVID, so those in flows created a picture of a sound economy, but after COVID, the borrowers became stricter and rated us accurately which made us not credit worthy, we got exposed and saw our true story!
People forget that the country was doing well very until Covid-19/Ukrainian-Russia war,during such period of low productivity and revenue when workers were home,the gov’t still paid salaries,provided Covid-19 PPEs/logistics to health sector over 2yrs,was still investing in agriculture,education(even still funding FSHS),security services and forces,constructing roads,etc…and even after that,the signs are that we are recovering steadily.Even super economies haven’t fully recovered from the global economic recession.I think Nana needs some commendations.The issue of empowering the grassroots of the party/or making the party strong is another conversation.For me,Bawumia is the best Ghana needs now,he’s creative,innovative,generational thinker,alternative solutions/ideas oriented,brilliant/sharp in his ideas etc
@ peter, well said. Just cast your mind back to the period between 2001-2009 i.e. during the period of former president kufour. The fact that Akuffo Addo who took over from president kufour as a NPP presidential candidate in the 2008 elections got 49% + in the 2008 elections is enough indication that the NPP was still the preferred choice of majority of Ghanaians thanks to the policies of kufour. For almost every foreign travel kufour undertook he came back home with something positive for the good people of Ghana. Kufour knew exactly what he was about. He had very good friendly relations with the world super powers. Mention them. George ***barred word*** (USA) , Angela Merkel ( Germany) Tony Blair ( Britain) Queen Elizabeth ( Britain) Shinzo Abe ( Japan), Jacques Chirac ( France) , Obadanjo (Nigeria) . Come to think of the N1 highway in Accra, the national health insurance scheme, metro mass transport, school feeding program, capitation grant, Micro finance and small loans centre ( MASLOC) , Livelihood empowerment against poverty (LEAP), People with disabilities common fund (PWD's common fund) , Fleet of Peugeot cars for the Ghana police service from Obasanjo of Nigeria, 3 months fuel on credit from Nigeria, new offices for the presidency ( Jubilee house) , Ghana @50 jubilee parks for all 10 regional capitals among several others. These were the policies that made NPP attractive to the Ghanaian people. Under kufour no minister was untouchable. The Kwodjo Baah Wiredu's, Osafo Marfo's, Richard Anane's, Akuffo Addo's, Kwamena Bartels, Mustapha Ali Iddris, Albert Kan Dappah's, Papa Owusu Ankomah's, Joe Ghartey's, Major Courage Quashigah's, Ernest Akubuor Debrah's kojo Adjei Darko's, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey's, Hackman Owusu Agyemang's, Joseph Kofi Adda's, Kofi Konadu Apraku's etc were all reshuffled. Is Akuffo Addo saying that former president kufour made a mistake when he moved him ( Akuffo Addo) from the Justice and Attorney general ministry to the foreign affairs ministry? Look at the efforts kufour made to entrench NPP firmly on the ground. Under Kufuor party executives from constituency to regional to national were more powerful than ministers and MMDCEs. Today MMDCE's and ministers are more powerful than the party executives. Where have you seen this before? A brand new 2017 elephant with very big ears, unfortunately it doesn't listen, at best it hears but won't listen. Rather unfortunate. If the NPP goes to opposition, it will be extremely difficult for the party to bounce back strongly because they have failed to grow the party's businessmen and women. All the money is in the hands of the appointees and knowing how greedy, selfish and inward looking they are, which of them will agree to fund the party when it goes into opposition in his or her region or constituency? We are watching. Am NPP, but may God never give us the calibre of people leading the party today especially the appointees/ appointing authority .
Interesting discourse. I tend to agree with Dan and disagree with you @Kay. The constitution of Ghana is at the moment such that it arrogates near absolute power to the president so the only thing anyone could do is make suggestions to him and of course the man decides whether to heed or ignore which os what has been happening all those while. How many times have people not suggested to him to reduce the number of ministers? How many times have sympathisers not called for a reshuffle? He has blatant disregard for the opinion of others including those who voted for him. Unfortunately his actions and inactions has made the NPP unpopular to swing voters. Many people including my own wife and three friends have vowed not to vote because of the disappointment Akuffo Addo has caused. The other man who though was in Ghana but could not speak on the affairs of Ghana because of how things were falling in place up until 2019 now sees himself better. Akuffo Addo's failure has become Mahama's success... its sad times.
@Dan you have said it all. But for me even though everything you said about Akufo Addo is on point, I will be hesitant to apportion all the blame to him. I think the NPP as a party deserves equal accusations. It could be that it was the kuffour factor that made it appear like the NPP was a better party with intelligent people who had good will for the country. Where are all those people? They can all look on aloof for one man and his family to destroy the party and the enthusiasm, patriotism and hope of Ghanaians? Where all those NPP MPs who rose against the abnormal leadership of the president and his cousin? After failing to make headway, all of those sychophantly and undemocratically joined the president's preferred heir, one that would extend his perpetual influence over the party and the nation. So we cannot leave such people out of the blames. But for the good of Ghana, no body with clear thinking abilities and goodwill for Ghana should even consider Bawumia especially at this critical moment. We cannot reward mediocrity and wickedness. If NPP and NDC do not think about Ghana, let's continuously register our displeasure by voting them out. One day, maybe sooner than later, we will get credible and clever people as an effective alternative.
Hmmmmmm, any country that turns towards the IMF is in crisis. Under your watch as president Ghana went to the IMF for a bailout and the country was still under an IMF program as at the time you left office in January, 2017. Fact is that the actions and inactions of Akuffo Addo is what has given you space to want people to believe that you were far better. All these because Akuffo Addo will not listen to anyone but himself. Any leader who thinks that his views and thoughts are superior to any other views is bound to fail or face challenges and this is exactly what is happening. Former president kufour had his ears on the ground and listened a lot, the reason why he's undoubtedly the most successful president of the fourth republic so far. As someone who served under kufour as Attorney general and foreign affairs minister, it was the expectation of many that Akuffo Addo will outperform kufour because he would have picked some important lessons from him. Unfortunately the opposite is the case. This is what is encouraging Mahama to want to come back. I keep saying Akuffo Addo will be the most disgraced president in Ghana's history if he were to hand over to Mahama in January, 2025. Ghanaians would have been saying that John Mahama with all his ills is still far better than Akuffo Addo. Can you imagine a driver going to a vehicle mechanic to change his car plugs for new ones , only to return the next day asking for the old ones he changed, reason being that the old plugs were firing much better than the new ones? You don't come to repeat same mistakes if not worse someone made and expect people to hail you, it doesn't happen that way. If there is/was any Ghanaian politician the people had so much trust and confidence in to turn round the fortunes of Ghana, it was no other person than Akuffo Addo. Unfortunately he has squandered a golden opportunity to have made a long lasting history for himself and family. One can't just believe this is same Akuffo Addo people had to wait for running into the middle of the night only for him to win power and kill the spirit of people who believed in him . To make matters worse he doesn't even seem to appreciate the very people who's sweat made him a president. Just recall his answer to the people of kwabre in Ashanti when they complained about the bad nature of their roads. This was a constituency where you got the highest number of votes i.e. 82,000 nationwide in the last elections. Can you look the people of Kwabre in their face and lead Bawumia to this constituency to campaign in 2024? You have succeeded in making Bawumia's work very difficult. Considering the goodwill the people of Ghana had in the NPP, the party is closer to " breaking the 8" than the NDC but for the leadership style of Akuffo Addo. It's sad. Even wild dogs don't bark at the one that feeds it. Scarcely will you see a dog biting the one that provides it with food. It won't.
Yes, indeed. Ghana needs rescue but JDM, did you date suggest you are the one to carry out the rescue mission? You are by far the worst performed president.
From who? Mahama? Total failure of a person.
But john mahama himself is a crisis. We saw your abysmal governance when you were in power.only 3 years old will trust you.
And You the John Mahama is the savior? Lol lol lol lol . We saw your government oooooooo.