In The Absence Of Akufo Addo Who Acted As President?

Folks, did you notice that when Akufo-Addo left for Bamako, Mali, to attend the 27th summit of the Franco-African summit news reports didn’t say that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was to act in his absence as the President of Ghana?

Why so? It’s strange, to say the least, because it hasn’t happened before in our 4th Republic. Anytime the substantive President is out of the country, we are told openly that the Vice President will act. It has been so since the establishment of the 4th Republic.

On previous occasions when both the President and his Vice were out of the country, the Speaker of Parliament took over, swearing the office of office administered by the Chief Justice.

Once, when the immediate past Speaker of the House (Doe Adjaho) chose not to swear the oath of office in acting for both the President and his Vice, he was taken to task and faulted.

The point here is that the “acting capacity” is integral to our democratic experiment. Yet, nothing was said about Dr. Bawumia’s status in the absence of Akufo-Addo. Why so? Your food-for-thought, folks!!

We next turn to another angle. Those of us who know how vicious the Danquah-Busia political tradition is will not hesitate to see the crude manner in which Akufo-Addo booted out Dr. Opuni (the CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board) from office as part of the vendetta that has been long in planning and short in implementation.

The manner in which he was kicked out speaks volumes about the mindset with which Akufo-Addo wants to do things.

First, let's recall here that in the late 1960’s, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia had done things in this crude manner to give us what became known as "Apollo 568" (which targeted mostly civil servants of Ewe extraction to be expunged from the civil service for no apparent reason than that they didn't belong).

That action gave us the "Sallah case" and led to Busia's disgraceful affront to the Judiciary, symbolized by his "No Court! No Court!!" outbursts to undermine the integrity of the Judiciary. Yet, Busia and his Danquah-Busia clan claimed to be liberal democrats!!

Fast forward that disgraceful moment to what Akufo-Addo has begun doing today and you shouldn't fail to see things beyond the surface to know that Akufo-Addo and his bunch have something sinister up their sleeves to unleash on those perceived as "enemies" in government service to be weeded out.

The manner in which Dr. Opuni has been removed from office is reprehensible; and, no wonder, the eminent K.B. Asante has condemned it as unGhanaian. I agree with him.

The letter to Dr. Opuni was served on him on Thursday, January 12, summarily directing him to leave office on Friday, January 13. Inconceivable.

Why should he be chased out of office this way as if he is a criminal being pushed to the wall to be nailed? How could he prepare handing-over notes within that short span of time? Or was he being set up for punitive action as an NDC sympathizer?

(We recall news reports from the pro-NPP camp that just after the NPP had won the elections, he shredded vital documents on the Cocobod's operations.

Whether true or not, the impression was created that he has something to hide, which means preparing him for the slaughter house. Thus, by quickly tightening the noose in this crude manner, Akufo-Addo and his team are looking for clues to nip him).

Back to the letter directing him to leave office, which itself speaks volumes of the incompetence of Akufo-Addo’s Secretary (Nana Bediatuo). As pointed out by Mr. Asante, the tone of that letter is really bad.

The same applies to the letter removing the CEOs of the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies from office. Equally stinking. Why so?

It smacks of wiliness, vile political vendetta, and abject arrogance to be condemned outright. It reflects an anti-worker attitude that makes nonsense of Akufo-Addo’s agenda for the workforce.

From a wider angle, what is the fate of workers in Ministries abolished or re-aligned by Akufo-Addo? Will they automatically lose their jobs or be re-settled elsewhere? Where is that elsewhere? How so?

(We recall here Rawlings’ obnoxious policy of retrenchment and redeployment of workers in the civil service that provoked much resentment for him personally and the NDC that he stood for, generally.)

Folks, I want to stick my neck out to say that what has been done to Dr. Opuni will be extended to others as Akufo-Addo bulldozes his way through the civil and public sectors to deal drastically with those seen as hostile to the NPP. We have seen it before and will brace up for more. Truly, efficiency will be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Too bad in a democracy!!