Vanderpuije is good mayor but power drunk - Nana Akomea

Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, has touted the leadership credentials of Alfred Oko Vanderpuije describing him as one of the best mayors Accra has ever had.

He was quick to add however that the mayor is power drunk and has the penchant of being overzealous which has taken the shine out his achievements as mayor.

Nana Akomea was commenting on the recent controversial renaming of the Theodosia Okoh hockey pitch by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

The Accra Mayor in consultation with his Assembly members changed the name of the Hockey Stadium from the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium to John Evans Atta Mills Hockey Stadium.

The change, according to the Mayor, was in honour of the late President John Mills who was a major fan of hockey.

However, the decision was quickly reversed after a huge public uproar and a passionate appeal by the 91-year-old Theodosia Okoh to the president to intervene from the renaming.

The president intervened and summoned the AMA boss to answer why he made such a unilateral decision without consulting the presidency.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s current affairs Talk show Ekosii-Sen on Monday, Nana Akomea said if a survey were to be conducted on mayors of Accra, he is convinced that former Mayor Adjiri Blankson and Oko Vanderpuije’s names will appear on top due to their exceptional leadership qualities.

“I believe as someone who lives and had been an MP in Accra for 16 years, I can tell you that Oko Vanderpuije is one of the best if not the best mayors ever we have had in Accra. But it is only that power had gone into his head so he is doing things that are taking away the shine out of his good works. I believed if a survey is conducted on mayors of Accra, Adjiri Blankson and Vanderpuije’s names will be on top,” he stressed.

Commenting on the directive by the president to halt the rename of the hockey pitch, Nana Akomea asserted that President Mahama has humiliated, disgraced and undermined the authority of the mayor.

The former Member of Parliament for Okaikoi South stressed that the president could have opted the mayor to revert the decision by himself than “publicly slapping him in the face and issuing a fiat”.

He said unless Mr. Oko Vanderpuije is going to be sacked, the directive by the president has turned him into a laughing stock.

“I find the order of the president to halt the rename of the pitch as wrong. Unless the mayor is going to be sacked; other than that the president by his order has undermined and crippled the authority of the mayor because he reserves some powers. The mayor works directly under the local government minister and that of Greater Accra so I thought the president would instruct them to deal with the issue than himself. If someone works under you, you don’t go above and slap him in the face publicly like the president did. He has turned the mayor into a laughing stock."

Nana Akomea noted that though the renaming of the hockey pitch by the AMA was in a bad taste and needs to be reverted quickly, the way it was done has disgraced and degraded the Mayor, Oko Vanderpuije.

The former MP for Okaikoi South reckoned that the action by Mr. Oko Vanderpuiye is the culmination of the acts of impunity by the NDC government since 2009.

He stated that if the Accra Mayor had been cautioned for reverting the Ohene Gyan Stadium to the Accra sports stadium he would not have taken this recent decision.