Nana Akufo-Addo Needs to Level Up with the Ghanaian People

He may very well be right to assert the fact that President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would probably have made himself richer or been much wealthier, if he had not decided to venture into politics as a full-time vocation and, instead, decided to remain in private legal practice (See “If It’s about Enriching Myself, I Could’ve Done Better in Private Sector – Akufo-Addo Rejects Corruption Claims” Modernghana.com 10/20/23). But, of course, from what we all have presently come to know and personally witnessed under nearly every Fourth-Republican government, irrespective of whether the concerned government had been sponsored by the late Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings-founded present main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) or the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), not many Ghanaian politicians even of the global prominence, stature and influence of the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice could convincingly make the same public claim and/or pontifical declaration, including the subject of the present conversation himself, without any shred or the shadow of a doubt before an overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian people.

For starters, why would the former Foreign Minister and Minister of ECOWAS Integration so adamantly insist on having proven political scam-artists like his own blood relative and cousin, Mr. Kenneth Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, keep resubmitting the patently criminal contractual document that is the Agyapa Mineral Investment Heist to Parliament for a rubberstamping approval, even long after it had forensically been proven by Mr. Martin A B K Amidu, the President’s own appointed Independent Special Prosecutor at the time, as being capitally criminal and a Class-A Felony attempt to shakedown Ghanaian taxpayers and, by extension, the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana at large, for the exclusive benefit of the Bible-quoting Mr. Ofori-Atta and his equally kleptocratic associates, several of whom were also widely reported to have been Akufo-Addo appointees and relatives? The picture simply does not look by any stretch of the imagination; and the dauphin of the late Justice Edward Akufo-Addo, the Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia-appointed Ceremonial President of Second-Republican Ghana, had better exercise some discretionary sobriety and modesty and humbly accept his clear and conspicuous failure to effectively manage the “Public Purse.”

Furthermore, litigiously taking the Agyapa Mineral Investment Scam to the West African Court of Arbitration – or some such judicial entity – for evaluation and approval, well after this inexcusable act of heinous and treasonable criminality of the most unspeakable of its kind had been roundly and unreservedly rejected by the legitimately elected Representatives of the Ghanaian People, and having one of his lawyers rather daftly claim that the Agyapa racketeers had been vindicated, almost made the globally repudiated Mahama’s European Airbus Payola Scam seem like chum change or a Two-Dollar act of mugging or pickpocketing gone awry.

As well, Nana Akufo-Addo’s own cousin, Mr. Gabriel “Gabby” Asare Otchere-Darko, has publicly made quite a mess of pontifical pronouncements that point to the fact that even once widely regarded successful business moguls like Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta may very well have become gold-digging predators of the most unpatriotic and despicable of his kind, a label that ever since anybody can remember, had invariably and almost exclusively been used to tag women on the lookout for easy and lavish modes of existence, often by deviously sponging on the wealth and the resources of well-heeled men on the lookout for fun and pleasure on the cheap, with physically attractive but decidedly unmarriable women, for the most part.

Oftentimes, these “Aben Woha” or “Been-to” galivanting men are long-married middle-aged men with families, sometimes married to several women with brigades of children. For example, Nana Akufo-Addo’s Cousin Gabby has gone on record as having said that Cousin Ken has been the Chief Financial Underwriter for the Akufo-Addo Presidential Campaign for at least a decade, and that there was absolutely no chance for any implacably disaffected Ghanaian citizens, even party stalwarts, to expect that a demonstrably grossly incompetent Mr. Ofori-Atta would ever be relieved of his ministerial portfolio. One would also have expected a widely rumored “filthily loaded” Ken Ofori-Atta to have been working pro bono or gratis for the sake of Ghana and an enduring legacy on behalf of a presidentially desperate Nana Akufo-Addo and the Danquah, Ofori-Atta and the Akufo-Addo Clan and the latter’s allied families and clans. Alas, it appears that quite the very opposite is what has become the publicly envisaged norm or reality.

Among other things, the fact that Cousin Ken has, allegedly, routinely used his Databank firm to work for remarkable amounts of commission fees on government contracted loans, a flagrant conflict-of-interest case that absolutely in no way, shape or form makes the politics or political profession the kind of financially unattractive enterprise that Nana Akufo-Addo would have the rest of the members of the global Ghanaian community believe that it is. As well, not many vigilant and critically thinking Ghanaian taxpayers and citizens have lost sight of the fact that Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko did not begin to own a network of FM radio stations prior to the triumphant realization of the Akufo-Addo Presidency. And to be certain, the erratically published Ghanaian Statesman newspaper, originally founded by the late Justice Edward Akufo-Addo, which Otchere-Darko allegedly managed prior to the Akufo-Addo Presidency, was not exactly any serious entrepreneurially minded Ghanaian citizen’s idea of a going concern or an industrial bonanza.

Then also, there are the politically disturbing cases of Monsieur Eugene Arhin, the President’s Jubilee House Communications Director and, most recently, the Cecilia Dapaah Scandal. In other words, there is scarcely any credible evidence pointing to the fact of any significant percentage of the key players of the Akufo-Addo Administration having been so gainfully employed well before their individual assumption of their present official appointments that their venture into the traditionally envisaged sacrificial and altruistic politics or political industry could be appreciably demonstrated to have actually detracted from or negatively impacted the financial status or wellbeing or profiles of these cabinet and executive appointees. This observation is further shored up or given further credence by the flat and adamant refusal of our elected politicians and political appointees to publicly disclose their assets upon the assumption of their various positions of public trust.

The stark fact of the matter is that even if one hypothetically concurs with the premise that venturing into politics may very well have significantly and negatively impacted the wallet and the bank account of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, one almost definitely cannot convincingly make a similar claim for the overwhelming majority of the President’s kinsmen and women who are widely known to have been hired by our beloved Chief Executive of State. You see, enabling rank corruption to fester under one’s administrative watch or tenure, as clearly seems to be happening presently, at least according to a recent press statement or declaration by the august Conference of Ghanaian Catholic Bishops, is not exactly a laudable act of sacrificial patriotism. My Dear Good, Old Uncle Kwaku Willie needs to wake up, shape up and ponder the reality Pronto!!!

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
November 11, 2023
E-mail: [email protected]