Has His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Sooner Become aTyrant as Alleged by Kevin Taylor?

A newscast video has barely been forwarded onto my WhatsApp page. It is a broadcast of the Friday Editorial by a newscaster called Kevin Taylor, titled, "Breaking the jaws of democracy". In the video, Kevin is raving and ranting in a manner befitting an uncultured educated-illiterate exuding his youthful exuberance. I am not at all perturbed by his castigating and heaping of insults on His Excellency the President. However, I am greatly worried by the amount of lies he is spewing about the President.

He calls him a tyrant, a liar and an oppressor of his political opponents with intent and agenda to kill journalists and to suppress press freedom in Ghana. He claims the president has empowered the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) boss, Tiwaah Addo-Danquah, to intimidate the president’s opponents in attempts to kill democracy in Ghana. He did not cite any of the actions taken by Tiwaah which amount to killing the freedom of expression in Ghana hence obliterating democracy which the President himself once enjoyed and continues to enjoy in Ghana.

One thing I hate about Tiwaah is her shameless on air announcement that the police had found, or are aware of, the whereabouts of the three kidnapped Takoradi school girls, which has turned out to be false. This false claim by a police officer of her calibre should be sufficient grounds for her demotion or expulsion from the police force but not promotion as it has contrary become the case.

Apart from this unethical behaviour of hers, a sign of total incompetence, what else has she done to prove that she is being used to intimidate the political opponents of the president? Who are those people that she is using her official position, or she is being incited by the president, to harass or suppress? Kevin could not cite any such instances but just making irresponsible sweeping statements.

Kevin’s behaviour is typical of most Ghanaian journalists and media houses that sell their conscience to political parties for money to do whatever it takes, or is within their capacity, to bring down the rivals of their paymasters. He claims to have regretted voting for then presidential-candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because to him, the President has failed in every promise he made to Ghanaians subsequent upon which himself and many other Ghanaians cast their votes for him.

Did Kevin Taylor actually vote for Nana Addo in Election 2016? Let me give him the benefit of the doubt that he is intelligent as he portrays himself to be in his newscast. How on earth, could he expect a President of a developing nation like Ghana, come to office to meet no money but debt left behind by his predecessor, to build a factory in each district, give US$2 million to each district per year, convert all major Ghana roads into asphalt-build of twelve centimetres in thickness, stop power outages or load shedding, introduce free Senior High School Education, build one dam in each northern regions’ villages, etc., all in a space of two years or in his first four-year term in office? It is only a person living in cloud cuckoo land who will happily without question believe on the face value that all such electioneering promises are achievable at the crack of the finger. If Kevin expects all such promises which discerning Ghanaians view them as fitting into a long term development plan by a visionary leader, to be achieved within the two years of Nana Addo being in power, then he must have his brains seriously examined.

What is meant by to "live in cloud cuckoo land"? Let me quote from Wikipedia to explain it. "Cloud cuckoo land is a state of absurdly, over-optimistic fantasy or an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect. Someone who is said to "live in cloud cuckoo land" is a person who thinks that things that are completely impossible might happen, rather than understanding how things really are". This explains the folly of Kevin and his ilk who expected miracles to happen under the presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo within two years to rectify all the anomalies of thieveries, corruption, incompetence, mismanagement of the nation’s resources and the nonchalance attitude by the NDC government to the Chinese destroying Ghana’s ecology (water bodies, air and fertile lands and virgin forests) with impunity, if not with the government’s support through uncontrolled illegal surface mining (galamsey) as visited upon the country.

He goes on with his exhibition of childishness to allege that His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has become a tyrant. Does Kevin actually understand the word tyrant or he has just used it to prove to his paymasters that he is so audacious to use any silly words that pass through his mind? Again, let us define the word tyrant. Tyrant is "any person in a position of authority who exercises power oppressively or despotically" with the word despot being "a king or other ruler with absolute, unlimited power"

By the definition of tyrant, can Kevin cite me one or two instances where His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has exercised his Executive powers vested in him by the Constitution despotically or tyrannically? If he were a tyrant, he would have had that uncivilized, bush-mannered Appiah Stadium trialled in court for defamation of character when he, Appiah Stadium, accused him of being a heavy "wee" (weed or marijuana) smoker. However, the president decided not to take any court action against him when the police invited Appiah Stadium to give them proof of his allegation to enable them probably take some action against the President since dealing in "wee" is a criminal offence in Ghana. Was Appiah Stadium not on his knees begging and crying like a "chicken baby" saying he had lied as his allegation was merely a political talk?

If the President were a tyrant, he would have you arrested for insulting him on air and alleging that he has been killing journalists and oppressing journalism in Ghana. Who has he killed, please tell me. How is he collapsing free press in Ghana? Why has Radio Gold been refused the renewal of their licence? Could you please tell me the reasons why? Was it the President who directed for the station to be closed?

Maybe, Kevin was not born, or was just a small baby without the recollection of the days of the late ex-President Dr Kwame Nkrumah. He was a tyrant who never entertained any opposition from his political rivals or from any Ghanaian hence introducing the policy of the Preventive Detention Act where anyone who challenged or insulted him was taken to the Nsawam High Detention Camp or prison without trial until the person died. "The Preventive Detention Act was a pernicious piece of legislation which conferred unfettered power on Kwame Nkrumah, as Prime Minister and later President of Ghana, to order the arrest and imprisonment of any citizen without trial"

Another example of recent memory was the era of former President Jerry John Rawlings as the Chairman of the military Provisional National Defence Council in the 1980s. Could you have insulted Rawlings or challenged his ways of governance without disappearing forever into the thin air? How many people did not disappear during his tyrannical regime and have never been found since?

In the days of Dr Kwame Nkrumah under the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and that of Rawlings under his military PNDC junta, were radio stations able to insultingly discuss them and their policies without incurring their retribution?

Kevin and his likes in the media have an agenda to grease and let function the wheels of the NDC propaganda machine with the objective of bringing the NDC back to power to enjoy the illegal money they were dishing out to the journalists from the public coffers hence his irresponsible raving and ranting as broadcast on his Friday’s Editorial. He wants to bring back the "create, loot and share" which he misses so much now that his pockets are probably drying of illegal money.

By CID Tiwaah Addo Danquah inviting Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the NDC Chairman, to give account of his intentions to cause insecurity in the country through acts of arson, kidnappings, robberies and murders as secretly captured on recorded audio the oppression of the President’s political opponents that Kevin is talking about? Kevin Taylor must come back with better clarifications as I am at the moment lost for reasons to justify his machismo accusations against the President and the Police CID boss.

SUGGESTION:
As obstinate as the NPP are, not listening to wise admonition to have political strategy of survival in government in place, these corrupt journalists of whom Kevin Taylor by his actions is one, will all team up to bring down NPP come Election 2020. Kevin is telling Ghanaians that upon all the unprecedented stinking corruption visited upon Ghana by former President Mahama and his NDC government, they were far better than NPP and President Nana Akufo-Addo. This is just the beginning of their actions to bring down NPP.

I have been warning NPP against their lack of interest in having communicators or radio stations that will disseminate the policies and the achievements of the government but they seem not to give a hoot. Even, they are themselves sabotaging Oman FM radio station, the only radio station in Ghana that champions their cause. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Will Kevin Taylor mind going to any of the Arabian Gulf States to see real tyrants and what a tyrant is? If he were there to utter even a tenth of his stupid ranting and ravings against any of the Sheiks let alone, their monarchs, as he has done to His Excellency the President in his newscast under discussion, he would be a minced meat. Or, he had better go to North Korea to taste a minute of the ruling of President Kim Jong-un to see what tyranny is to cease his stupid false accusations against President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Democracy is thriving and growing stronger under President Nana Akufo-Addo contrary to the lies told by Kevin for his parochial interest.

I shall be back when need be. With God, we are victorious!

Rockson Adofo
(12 May 2019)