A Letter To The First Lady Of Ghana

Rebecca Akuffo Addo

Your Excellency Rebecca Akuffo Addo, I send you greetings from a “coded location” here in “Oman” Ghana. Congratulation on the election of your “beloved” Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo as President of the Republic of Ghana, making you the First Lady. “Ayekoo”.

You have been a good example to the younger Ghanaian woman. That it is worthwhile to stand by her man as he fights to achieve his own dreams. We witnessed it first hand, the pride that filled your eye with tears on the 7th of January 2017. We all could not help but share in your joy.

Your Excellency, my letter to you today, is only to remind you of something you have done so excellently all your life, only that you even need to do it more now that Nana is president. The task ahead is a huge one, and he will need you to be his number one supporter, protector and advisor. Why do I say this?

First of all, on the backdrop of a very emphatic victory in last year’s election, and for how long the President fought to get to that office, he might be tempted to share the electoral spoils. This is what many Ghanaians think he has done by appointing 110 ministers, the largest in the history of Ghana. He has cited the task ahead and availability talent as some of his reasons for the choosing a big size, to which I have my own reservations. I may write to you on that matter in my next letter.

One things you should make sure His Excellency does not lose sight of is the fact that not every one of his appointees is there to help him succeed. Most of them are there, neither to serve Nana nor Ghana, but to serve themselves. The former government was surrounded with “babies with sharp teeth”. These people, one way or another, caused the downfall of the NDC in the December polls. But I can assure you that some of the people in your husband’s list of appointees are no babies. I call them “toothless grannies with strong jaws”.

Please, look out for our president in his dealings with his appointees. They will, in most case, hide the truth from him, to make him think that everything is well. I know you cannot decide for him but do everything you can to protect him. Be his number one supporter and make that woman instincts count.

Scandals are going to hit, involving some of his appointees. Please listen and let it reach His Excellency that he should not be friendly when such times come. Whoever does something wrong should be brought to book.

Do not forget that it was the same mistakes his predecessor made that sent him away from the Flag Staff house. In 2014, when millions of dollars was airlifted to Brazil to pay appearance fees of the Black Stars, which brought bad press to Ghana, no one was punished for it. The failure of the former president to handle most of the scandals that hit his government resulted in his failure to win a reelection.

If Nana Addo will be able to protect the public purse and fight against corruption, as he has promised, he will need to keep his people in check and not be friendly in dealing with them. Remember that it was “friendliness” that got H.E. Park Geun-hye impeached as president of South Korea.

Madam First Lady, please do whatever you can to make sure that Nana would not drop from his “comfortable lead” in 2016 to a humiliating defeat in 2020. Do not forget, it is Ghanaian electorates you are dealing with. They can be unpredictable sometimes.

Until I write to you again, I remain a concerned “citizen” of Ghana and a long distant admirer of your husband.