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Will President Akufo-Addo be leaving office with his ‘moving Presidential Chair’ or not?

Feature Article Will President Akufo-Addo be leaving office with his ‘moving Presidential Chair’ or not?
SUN, 29 DEC 2024 5

Upon resumption of office in 2017, Outgoing President Akufo-Addo was often seen sitting on his ‘moving Presidential Chair’ at functions.

This ‘moving Presidential Chair’ issue caused many to begin to question the rationale behind this recurring matter. A response never came from the Presidency to explain to Ghanaians what was happening.

A separate vehicle together with a driver was assigned to make the moving Presidential Chair was available on time at functions for President’s use. This definitely added an additional cost to the national coffers despite apparent financial difficulties confronting the country.

To my mind, this moving Presidential Chair situation under Akufo-Addo’s leadership appears to be the first of its kind in the country.

While Nana Akufo-Addo prioritises sitting the Presidential chair any occasion in the country, his direct actions and inactions in office have visited a lot of hardships on the ordinary Ghanaians. It was no surprising that Ghanaians revolted strongly against the poor leadership style of Nana Akufo-Addo by voting Dr. Bawumia out in an emphatic manner on December 7, 2024.

Now that outgoing Akufo-Addo has exhausted his 2 mandatory terms as President, I would like to pose this rhetorical question here. Will President Akufo-Addo be leaving office with his ‘moving Presidential Chair’ or not?

I can comfortably assume that outgoing Akufo-Addo will not go home along with office equipment that he came to meet or acquired in the name of the state while in office.

If Nana Akufo-Addo will not go home with his moving Presidential chair, it shows that he has been misplacing priorities of this country and his personal wishes as a civilian President.

President Akufo-Addo is likely to go down in the history of Ghana as the worst, highly insensitive and most unpopular President ever in this 4th Republican dispensation.

His regime has seen misplaced priorities such as wasting taxes on fulfilling a personal pledge of building a Cathedral for God and embellishment of flagship NPP’s projects with no adequately tangible results to show for in the past 8 years.

The least expected of outgoing Akufo-Addo to do was to prioritize the running of the country but not ensuring that his ‘moving Presidential Chair’ was available for him to sit during official occasions within the country.

The lesson to learn from this 'moving Presidential Chair' under nana Akufo-Addo, in my view, is that elected leaders should not lord themselves over the subjects who them there but rather seek to improve on their living conditions.

John-Baptist Naah, Dr.
John-Baptist Naah, Dr. , © 2024

A Research Associate, who is an Ethnoecologist/Ethnobotanist, Climate Enthusiast and Environmentalist. He is also an Opinion Columnist for Modernghana.com & ghanaweb.com.Column: John-Baptist Naah, Dr.

Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." Follow our WhatsApp channel for meaningful stories picked for your day.

Comments

Pelicles. | 12/30/2024 6:30:33 PM

What an inane question. The president served 8 years, but some backward people are talking as if he lost an election. By the way, who was president in Ghana from 2012-2016, and? Once-upon-a-time, NDC was in government without any opposition party, and did they make Ghana a paradise nation. When a fool wins an election, foolish people become so happy because they can use him to their advantage.

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