body-container-line-1

Election 2020: What Would Be President Akufo Addo's Monikers?

Feature Article President Akufo Addo
AUG 15, 2019 LISTEN
President Akufo Addo

Fellow Ghanaians, the latest presidential hoopla displayed by president Akufo Addo on his northern-wide tour in the northern regions has doubtlessly endeared him to many hearts. And like the biblical Jeremiah, chunkiest of Ghanaians have been purposelessly lamenting for such unmerited endearment and love this group of Ghanaians are showing our president.

I always tell my friends that were I a citizen of another country other than Ghana I would've come to naturalize for this interesting country to become her citizen. Not because of the "mere geographical expression" of the Ghana's contours and geographical make up, but because we constitute mainly a nation of jokers. Sometimes I spend hours laughing out loud reading what's happening in our dear country. Anytime I'm sad I go on Ghanaweb, ModernGhana.com and other media outlets. The unrebuked thievery and other unthinkable hilarious news items involving public office holders are abound to make one's day. Especially anytime the government is allocating funds to the various ministries. You would be amazed to find some huge sums of money in dollars allocated to ministries you can't find their contributions to the country since their creation over the years. You simply can't help but burst into a cacophony of laughter imagining what might have happened to the previous funds allotted these ministries.

I am sorry for the digression. The meat of this epistle is about farewell nicknames president Akufo Addo must accept in his sojourn of leadership so far and what that means for the president's desire to pertuate his "reign of terror" beyond 2020.

Our men of old say a man who is to be fallen by a donkey doesn't see its ears. Otherwise, he will hold the donkey's ears to prevent himself from falling.

Recall in the build up to the 2016 general elections president John Dramani Mahama bagged a lot of monikers and accolades, both undesirable and admirable ones.

This epistle needs my readers attention because in Ghana, 'everything is double-double'.

The Dumsor-Dumsor problems of the country during the tenure of former president Mahama, accorded him the title of president Dumsor (President Power Cut). When he later became fed up of the "torch-line" economics analysts and political pundits president Mahama decided to grow thorns on his skin and became a " dead goat" in order to resist the armchair analysis of both opposition and pundits, which didn't augur well with a section of Ghanaians. It was later on he transfigured into Commissioner-in-Chief of his government's infrastructural projects instead of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana armed forces when he started commissioning every project he cut the sod for. President Mahama was well known for his reneges of promises largely due to his desperation to meet the needs of Ghanaians. At a certain point, former president Mahama was synonymous to "the Brazilian fiasco". He became the "Sada Guinea fowl", though a Ghanaian president, he flew to Guinea. President Mahama's monikers, carved by the then opposition, were just too many and all of them collectively laid the foundation of defeat for him to exit political power.

This phenomenon has repeated itself under president Akufo Addo and that's the unfortunate nightmare of the current government. President Akufo Addo's monikers have become rife in the general air. An indication to exit power very soon.

But the question of what moniker(s) president Akufo Addo would be christened with considering the activities of his government since 2017 has been lingering in the cockles of many Ghanaians' hearts. Maybe "president unprecedented" should be one of his monikers, but it's certainly not the recent spurious claims of he being ranked the best president in Africa. For God's sake, let's get serious for once as a country. Today, Ghanaians are hungrier than they were in 2016 under president Mahama. Prices of goods and services, especially, fuel, has increased geometrically rather than arithmetically under president Akufo Addo's watch. Today, many Ghanaians are literally eating from dustbins, and the number of "Almajiri" (Beggars) increased in the Zongo communities despite a full ministry dedication to it.

Truth be told, majority of Ghanaians believed the impeachable claim of president Akufo Addo being the best president in Africa, was the worse form of propaganda and the most nauseating psychedelic joke the "researchers" who said it could crack Ghanaians. Who engineered this unsupported allegation is not known, but if the long mouth of the dog is insulted, the crocodiles in the pond are offended. President Akufo Addo may have engaged in such a wicked propaganda to downplay the intelligence of Ghanaians. Call him president "propaganda chairman".

In fact, the president deserves a gold medal for the unprecedented mess, irreparable damage his government has caused Ghanaians: the biggest debt ever incurred in our country's history; the messing up of our educational system, the fraudulent deals engaged in by government in respect of energy and power to shortchange Ghanaians; the unnecessary stomach infrastructure; and general insecurity of the country.

Today, unless you don't walk by sight or you are a citizen of Jupiter, Ghana has literally become an Abattoir where citizens are kept (kidnapped) and slaughtered like Eidul Adha cattle (a moniker there for president Akufo Addo).

And no patriotic citizen of this great country requires any explanation again to realize the current government is indeed swimming in a gargantuan foul mess. It is interesting a lawyer by profession, a former Justice Minister, and a former Lawmaker can sit aloof and watch journalists being killed, beaten, and chased away from their country. What moniker should president Akufo Addo be christened with in that regard?

You see, gradually, the government of the New Patriotic Party, NPP and its galaxy of sympathizers, are beginning to look like a flower that "is born to blush unseen and wastes its sweetness away in the desert air".

Apart from the latest unwanted and unfortunate chest-beating of government, and fraudulent allegations of President Akufo Addo being ranked as the best President in Africa, there's another Frankenstein's monster that is very capable of pulling and bringing down the entire government on its knees. That monster is the recent much-talked-about renaming of some state's institutions after the "family members" of president Akufo Addo. Our president has suddenly become the biblical Adam. He is naming and renaming everything in the country. Many Ghanaians are even afraid if he does not rename his party after Ghana, he might rename Ghana after his party, NPP.

Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of diarrhea leadership on the part of president Akufo Addo is his insistence and demand for "due process" or "due diligence" for his party footsoldiers who have, in one way or the other, been grabbed by the long arms of the law. However, there's always an "animal farm attitude of one nation two moralities" here and there. While the president, a supposed father of our nation, is foot-dragging cases involving "favorite citizens" whose crimes against the state could be akin and equated to that of crimes against the entire humanity, a breakneck speed is often launched to investigate unfavorable citizens who are mostly come from opposition and the government's imaginary enemies. Call it nepotism and favoritism. President "Favoritism".

After three years of unmitigated pottage of mess and colossal failure, president Akufo Addo has resorted to flowery language to convince Ghanaians to allow him govern for another term. I am particularly moved by speech and oratory. That's why I like president John D. Mahana who is a globally recognized communication expert. When I listened to president Akufo Addo's latest speech he delivered at the Bolegatanga Senior High School (Big Boss), I nearly wept and took a pinch of salt. Call him president hoopla.

One irresistible but most irresponsible moniker the president may wish to be referred to will be "president Free Senior High School". Yet the policy has simply caused more damage to our educational system than good. It has compromised the High School education on quality and comfort. Call him president Free Senior High School.

One most expected moniker will come from the office of the Special Prosecutor. And as any citizen can attest to as-a-matter-of-factly, the office of the Special Prosecutor remains the most offensive insult to Ghanaians. Not that its creation was ill-advised but it has been rendered incapacitated by the party's apparatchiks and certain parastatals of government at the behest of the president. There's a clear denial of political will to make the office function. Today, our citizens Vigilante Martin A.B.K Amidu has been simply reduced to an over pampered child that has misplaced a favorite candid. The shouting man has become a whining baby, complaining bitterly in that office. More than one year of his induction, not even a fly has been indicted. Yet, there are daily loots of public funds from our national kitty by looters.

What moniker should president Akufo Addo be christened with here? President Defender-in-Chief of looters.

Our elders say if a child is going to be burnt by fire he first feels cold.

If I were president Akufo Addo I would start preparing my handover notes. The defeat symptoms are very clear for all who care to see.

He is a failed corruption-fighter president. President Akufo Addo is a failed Ameri deal president. He is the BOST president. Recently he landed PDS president and so on. He is a favoritism president etc.

For me, just like former president Mahama who enjoyed the most monikers and lost the 2016 elections, president Akufo Addo must also prepare for a hands down defeat for his numerous monikers time and space can't allow me to elaborate here. His monikers are many in less than three years: bad and good nicknames and that's enough a bold sign of defeat come 2020.

Long live Ghana,
God Bless us all.
The Writer, Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem, is a MasterCard Foundation Scholar (Alumnus) At KNUST.

E-MAIL: [email protected]
CONTACT: 0261669954 (WhatsApp only)

body-container-line