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Opinions of Wednesday, 8 February 2023

Columnist: Joel Savage

The achievements of Akufo-Addo are embarrassment and debt

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

I have witnessed the leadership of African leaders, but I have never seen any African leader that is so incompetent to cause such extensive damage to an entire country, including its economy. It was October 21, 2019, I wrote “Akufo Addo Had Thought Being President In Ghana Is Very Easy,” following the bragging he made to Ghanaians and asking them to hand over power to serve them. Today, Akufo Addo is not only a loser but appears to be the most incompetent African leader.

The truth will be spoken, even if it results in decapitating my head like that of John the Baptist on a silver platter. What has happened to our country? This is not what Ghanaians deserve. To gain power, Akufo Addo and several NPP politicians, including Bawumia, the vice president, and his wife Samira, turned around and insulted Mahama. They made several accusations against the former Ghanaian president, who, aside from Kwame Nkrumah, had embarked on several projects in the country.

Mahama continues to face prejudice and the impacts of tribalism, much like the late Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first prime minister, did in a society where tribalism is more important to leadership than to development. Therefore, I don’t understand why anyone would term Mahama a loser considering that Akufo Addo has burdened Ghana with massive debt while failing to implement even one hospital from his so-called proposed project named "Agenda 111."

Mahama is not a Messiah; he made mistakes just like previous African leaders. However, for Akufo Addo to accuse the former Ghanaian leader of being corrupt and incompetent, while ignoring his worst actions is hypocritical and deceptive. When it comes to corruption, Akufo Addo is unable to control himself, along with his duplicitous relative, the finance minister, he plunders the state while retaining people involved in corruption scandals in his cabinet with impunity.

Ghana's major issue is that there is no sense of shame and that crime is encouraged inside families owing to tribalism, while those who tell the truth are attacked. Ghana has developed into one of the most corrupt countries in all of Africa, particularly West Africa. Even though Ghana's economic, educational, and health infrastructures have suffered because of corruption, those who devote their time to combating it frequently find themselves in danger or up against the fiercest adversaries.

An important step in addressing the enormous problem of corruption on the continent was the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC), which was established by the African Union Assembly in 2003. To eliminate corruption in both business and government, the Convention was created to provide Member States with a path for implementing governance and anti-corruption measures.

Although 44 of the 55 Member States have ratified the Convention as of this writing, little is known about how it will be implemented. Transparency International's most recent report covers three critical areas, including the funding of political parties, money laundering, and illegal enrichment, as well as the role of civil society and the media in the fight against corruption. Corruption has increased in several African countries after the Convention.

It is inexplicable why corruption would rise in such an unnatural way under a government that promised the oppressed masses a better life by protecting the public's finances but instead turned out to be the most corrupt in Ghana's political history. Everything in Ghana is political, thus the fight against corruption under Akufo Addo's administration has become a potentially fatal issue as people are often intimidated and subjected to harassing comments.

I find it difficult to comprehend why Akufo Addo is still the president of Ghana considering his request to Mahama to step down because the dollar exchange rate of GHC 3.72 indicates poor leadership. So why is he still in office despite using his charlatan finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to irreparably harm Ghana's economy? I won't stand by while lies about Mahama are spread, even though I am fully aware that he is a victim of tribalism and has outperformed Akufo Addo in every way.

If church leaders, religious groups, and competent media representatives, had played their part in safeguarding the country, things shouldn't have ended in such a terrible way. While the nation continues to disintegrate, all of them remain silent out of fear for the president, even though they all attacked the former president of Ghana when his administration oversaw one of the strongest economies in Africa.

This awful system of government has not yet had any negative effects on Ghanaians. I've been telling you what's going on, but you're not paying attention because you love to hate me more for revealing the truth. If Catherine Afeku, a former tourism, arts, and culture minister, says that "Unifier Alan Kyerematen is the surest bet for NPP's break the 8 agenda," it shows that the NPP is made up of truly wicked and heartless brainless individuals because the party cannot subject Ghanaians to such cruelty and still hope to rule the country, despite the harm and destruction they have inflicted on Ghana. The NPP is National Problems Party, nothing patriotic about it.

Don't waste your time writing about Mahama if you are a tribal bigot who finds it difficult to discuss the misdeeds of Akufo Addo. This is the error that many writers have made in the past, costing them readers. I've said it before, but the psychologically impacted tribal people can't live without it. No longer are Ghanaians led to believe that Mahama was dishonest and incompetent; while corruption is an issue in every government, Akufo Addo's level of corruption is unprecedented in Ghana.

How can a leader demolish a whole hospital that serves the residents of La-Tashie-Nungua while promising to create a replacement? It has been more than three years without the new hospital. Is this the definition of effective leadership? Akufo Addo only came to let Ghanaians face problems with his relative, Ken Ofori-Atta, thus it would have been better if he hadn't been president. The NPP abandoned all of the projects Mahama left unfinished, even though they were for Ghanaians.

Akufo Addo should tell Ghanaians what he has accomplished thus far as president; perhaps I am misinformed. You have failed in my eyes by wasting Ghana's money in an economy-harming manner. In addition, I view you as a loser for disobeying your obligations and engaging in an extramarital romance in the sky, in addition to damaging the livelihoods of ordinary Ghanaians with the phony E-Levy.

Is it the kind of leader I ought to admire? I'm pleased I'm not a tribal bigot because I realize that it's like having a hard drug addiction that you can't kick. Since I have repeatedly stated that Akufo Addo is the type of leader who will make you seem bad, I am unable to either follow him or support him in any way. Nobody can change it, and in my opinion, it was Akufo Addo's own greed and corruption that drove him into politics in the first place to come and embarrass himself.