Could Akufo-Addo Ever Impress Kwesi Pratt?

I did not listen to the entirety of President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s keynote address to the members of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), at the latter establishment’s annual conference in the Twin-Cities of Sekondi-Takoradi earlier this month, but I was quite certain that Mr. Kwesi Pratt’s plaint that he was disappointed in what the President had to say in response to widespread charges of corruption against a remarkable number of his appointees, was definitely predicated on sheer hypocrisy (See “I’m Very Disappointed in You – Kwesi Pratt to Akufo-Addo” Peacefmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 9/15/19). I am also quite certain that even if Nana Akufo-Addo had spoken exactly opposite of what he reportedly told the packed audience of “Who’s Who” among the rollcall of Ghanaian lawyers, it still would not have made a whit of a difference to Mr. Pratt, the Editor-Publisher of the so-called Insight newspaper.

First of all, Mr. Pratt, a diehard supporter of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is on record as having categorically stated that there was absolutely no way for him to ever cast his ballot in favor of either the neoliberal New Patriotic Party (NPP), much less fathom voting for the now-President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. That having been said, nevertheless, one cannot but unreservedly agree with the self-proclaimed rump-Convention People’s Party (r-CPP) stalwart that Nana Akufo-Addo could have more constructively addressed the issue of rank corruption in the country by clearly explaining any mechanism or corruption-fighting strategy that he had put in place, rather than inadvisably appearing to be defensive on this most crucial quality-of-life canker that seems to have gripped the nation in ways that appear not to have been witnessed in at least the last couple of years.

Personally, I believe that the level of corruption in the country has not really gone up; rather, it is the perception of corruption that seems to have skyrocketed, obviously because based on campaign promises, the general public has come to expect more by way of the fight against official corruption in the country than it has done in the recent past. It is also true that contrary to what critics from the main opposition National Democratic Congress would have Ghanaians believe, there was actually more corruption under the watch of the Woyome-supporting President John Evans Atta-Mills and under the watch of President John Dramani Mahama than has been the case under the watch of Nana Akufo-Addo. Indeed, by the President’s own testimony, more public officials who have been accused of fraud and bribery and corruption are facing criminal prosecution presently than has ever been the case for quite sometime now in Ghana’s Fourth-Republican dispensation.

This is what the President ought to have emphasized when he appeared before the national conference of the membership of the Ghana Bar Association of which, by the way, Nana Akufo-Addo has been a member in good standing for decades now. The preceding notwithstanding, it has been quite clear for some time now that Nana Akufo-Addo has been desperately struggling to stem the high tide of either the real occurrence of corruption in the country or the equally troubling perception of the same. As well, the level of the nation’s security has significantly improved, in spite of the fact that top NDC stalwarts such as the party’s National Chairman, Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, have been caught virtually red-handed conspiring to destabilize the country by either sponsoring or masterminding kidnapping activities as a surefire means of creating a fighting chance for Candidate Mahama in the leadup to the 2020 general election.

The communications operatives of the New Patriotic Party need to significantly up their game in this sphere of the party’s agenda between now and Election 2020 or there will be real hell to pay for such apparently deafening propaganda inaction. Trust me, contrary to what these NPP stalwarts may be tempted to erroneously believe, “propaganda” is no bad word at all, especially when one has to face off against political scoundrels like the Mahama Posse. Propaganda is an integral part of the competing narratives vis-à-vis which of our two major political parties better qualifies to lead our country for the next four years.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
September 15, 2019
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net