Akufo Addo is the biggest threat to Peace and Stability in Ghana – US Think Tank

Washington based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIC), says the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo is the biggest threat to peace and stability in Ghana.

In its latest Africa report published last June, titled: titled GHANA; Assessing Risks to Stability, authored By David W. Throup, highlighted what it says are the “Key Stress Points,” and Akufo- Addo's posture since he was elected the presidential candidate of the opposition NPP.

The project which was commissioned by the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), also touched on Akufo-Addo's track record and his public utterances such as the infamous “All-die-be-die, “We Akans,” “President at all cost, so forth.

The report categorically pointed out that the presidential candidate of the opposition is a threat to peace and stability in Ghana because his actions and utterance is not geared towards consensus building.

The report highlights the three key stress points as follows:

“Key Stress Points
... The role of the NPP leader and expected presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, will be crucial, and early signals suggest reason for worry. Akufo-Addo is desperate to mobilize support, and he has played the ethnic card, referring to the NPP as “We the Akans,” urging his supporters to “all die be die”—that is, they should be willing to die to ensure the NPP's victory.

Akufo-Addo's Track Record
There is talk in town that had it not been the timely intervention of the then President J. A. Kufour, it would have been difficult for Akufo-Addo to concede defeat. The lack of support from the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces meant that Akufo-Addo found himself cold on the ice, as the military configurations did not go in his favour.

The second bad news was the failure to surreptitiously secure a legal injunction by ex parte motion to sit and hear the case on the 1st of January 2009, a public holiday, without even informing the Electoral Commission, nor the NDC. He was compelled to come out to “acknowledge the Electoral Commission's declaration and congratulate Prof. Mills”.

Ghana had a lucky escape during the last presidential election in December 2008. The razor-thin failure of the NPP candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, to win the presidency on the first ballot (he missed out by less than 8,000 votes) briefly tempted the NPP to hang on to power and challenge the official results. In the hours following the election, then–president Kufuor played a vital role in urging his NPP supporters to accept the need for a second round.

When the NDC candidate, Atta-Mills, won the second round by the narrow margin of 0.46 percent, President Kufuor again urged acceptance of the result. But given that he is now in retirement, Kufuor is unlikely to be able to exert a moderating influence in 2012. And the NPP hard-liners seem to have seized control of the campaign.

Given the stakes involved, the 2012 election campaign is likely to be far more confrontational and potentially violent, the report concluded.

The True Statesman
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