"It was a mess" - comment on Akufo-Addo's government unjustified

In an article on ghanaweb.com in the General News of Sunday, 23^rd March 2025, the “former legal advisor to Kufuor passes damning verdict on Akufo-Addo's government”, which I think deserves an immediate reply.

“When asked on JoyNews to rate the former government, Vickie Bright expressed her disappointment, bitterly stating that, in her view, there were numerous issues within the administration, describing it as 'a mess'.”

I describe her judgement as poor and misguided.

My reasons are:

1. Kufuor, for a short while ago described the Presidency in Ghana as the government and all others are advisors.
2. Kufuor as a lawyer, trained in Oxford, should have read and understood the 1992 constitution much better than I as a doctor could have been expected to understand.

   He, Kufuor, and subsequent presidents who followed him, failed to read and understand the 1992 Constitution properly. With regard to local government the Constitution talked of devolution, which means “the devolving of power by the central government to regional administration”.

   Devolution is not an Ashanti word, it is an English word which has been defined in concise Oxford English Dictionary.

   Example of devolution is to be found in the UK, where power has been transferred from the central government to the regions, namely

3. Wales,
4. Scotland and
5. Northern Ireland

Each of the above named nations has devolved governments, meaning they have their national assemblies and prime ministers.

Situation in Ghana

In Ghana however, instead of the central government transferring power to the regional governments, subsequent central governments have deliberately refused to adhere to the transfer of power to the regional governments. This has led to poor governance because of semi-dictatorship.

Example:

1. 33 year old military officer who is partly of Ewe ethnicity takes power by force, unlike other neighboring countries, where the coups were made in the interest of the citizens, here in Ghana, the people became the victims of the coup. Why he did that in Ghana, is unknown to most of us.
2. For nineteen years this man has ruled Ghana, presided over the creation of 1992 constitution and failed to realise that devolution actually means transfer of power to the Regions.
3. Subsequent leaders continue to rule Ghana based on the principle defined by Kufuor, that the President is the government and the others are just advisors.

I would like to know, where this legal advisor Vickie was, when Kufuor ruled like a dictator according to his own definition.

President Mahama also ruled like a dictator.
He ordered over 200 V8 Toyota cars and at the end of his term they were all lost, because he believes the constitution allowed him to do whatever he wanted to do.

This is not the only crime he committed as a dictator-president, but he also was accompanied by Abedi Pele, the footballer, using the presidential jet to travel from Accra to Libya to Ghaddafi, from there he continued the journey to Burkina Faso, to visit another killer-president, that president, who killed Sankara in the name of the French people.

This is not the end of the abuse of power, under this 1992 Constitution, because this Mahama, together with another Northerner, Bawumia, illegally used the nations’ resources to pay for Islamic pilgrimage to Mekka. Instead to be impeached, the people of Ghana voted this same man into power again, only for him to be supervising the construction of an Islamic village at Kotoka International Airport.

Because of all these examples I have given, one would have thought that Vickie could not have singled out only Akufo Addo but that it is rather the bad Constitution which has made it possible for all these leaders to lead this Nation into danger, because, according to Kufuor. we have one-man-government.

That is the cause of the mess.
I have therefore recommended to Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, Asantehene that the deliberate omission of transfer of power from the central power to the regions must be re-instituted. Secondly, I entreat the parliamentarians in Ghana to consider impeachment of the present, newly elected President Mahama for his special relationship to some dangerous Arab countries, namely UAE and Saudi Arabia, because of their financial support for the massacre of our people in Sudan, in the Darfur Region. So far, 150.000 Africans in Darfur Region of Sudan have been massacred with the financial support of UAE and Saudi Arabia.

So, you see, Vickie, it is not Akufo Addo, it is the Constitution. It has to be changed.

Dr. Edward Kwame Poku