Akufo-Addo caught Mahama’s ‘dead goat’ syndrome – Cudjoe

IMANI Africa President, Franklin Cudjoe, has said President Nana Akufo-Addo’s address to the nation on Thursday night regarding the controversial Ghana-U.S. Defence Cooperation Deal, was cast in the mould of his immediate predecessor’s ‘dead goat’ posturing while in office.

Mr John Mahama, as president, told his critics that he had become like the proverbial 'dead goat' who did not fear being cut.

In Mr Cudjoe’s view, Nana Akufo-Addo’s demanour during his address betrayed his ‘dead goat’ attitude.

The president urged Ghanaians in his speech, to, as far as the defence deal is concerned, “reject the unspeakable hypocrisy of the naysayers who led our country into bankruptcy in the worst economic record of modern Ghanaian history”, adding: “Let us rise above them.”

Speaking on the deal which has been mired in a lot of controversy for the first time, President Akufo-Addo rejected accusations by the main opposition National Democratic Congress, its Minority in parliament and civil society organisations, that he has sold Ghana’s sovereignty to the U.S. for $20million, per the deal.

According to him, the NDC and its Minority are being hypocritical about the whole deal.

“How else would we have exposed the unspeakable hypocrisy of a fraternity of some frontline politicians who make a habit of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds who secretly wallow in the largesse of the United States of America while at the same time promote anti-American sentiment to a populist constituency.

“We have to take issue with the frontline politicians who have sought to mislead the people in this blatant manner and those who for mischievous purposes leaked the document destined for the scrutiny of parliament premature to a section of the media who then went on to describe it as a secret document.

“How could a document, intended for the consideration of parliament be described as a secret document? How could anyone who has been in government and run the administration of this nation feign ignorance of the conditions under which Ghanaian troops undertake peace-keeping operations or the conditions under which our country has collaborated with major international institutions?

“It is difficult to understand that such people, knowing what they do know, will go about so blatantly to confuse people and go as far as calling for the overthrow of our democracy. A democracy that has become the beacon of good governance in Africa, a democracy that has survived for a quarter of a century and encompassed even the most irresponsible episodes of governance in a state of unity and stability, a democracy that has provided the framework for systematic development in our social and economic welfare, and assured us of the longest uninterrupted period of stable constitutional governance in our history? Surely this is the kind of cynical manipulations by reckless self-seekers which at the fullness of time, the people of Ghana will acknowledge and condemn and I’m sure that as the facts become clear and widely available and as the people come to terms with the evidence, they will reject the falsehood and deliberate attempts to destabilise our peaceful country. Truth is sacrosanct.

“So, let me state with the clearest affirmation that Ghana has not offered a military base and will not offer a military base to the USA. Indeed the USA has not made any request for such consideration and consisted with our established foreign policy, we will not consider any such request,” the President said.

In response to the president’s adjectives-laden emotional speech, Mr Cudjoe wrote on Facebook that: “Not sure President Nana Addo was different from former President Mahama who called us purposeless lamentators when we complained about aspects of his governance. He even said he had become a dead goat that feared no sharper knives. Our current President just announced that he is a dead goat on this issue about the military agreement with the U.S. and lumped my good self together with the opposition for expressing that we could have extracted more from the agreement as countries like Latvia and Lithuania did. But I forgive him for he is a first time offender ...Lol lol lol”.