Kofi Wayo: God Will Deal With Kufuor

Call him a radical or a maverick politician, but he is never known to shy away from speaking his mind however forcibly and offensive they might be, and getting away with it.

“Chuck” Kofi Wayo, Leader and Founder of the United Renaissance Party (URP), is in the news once again. This time, he has turned his blazing guns on ex-president Kufuor and fired salvos at the former First Gentleman of the land describing him as a “common thief” and a “liar”.

He was reacting to comments made by former President Kufuor during an interview on Metro TV’s ‘Good Evening Ghana’ show on Tuesday, Sept 13th. In the said interview, Mr Kufuor categorically denied claims by Wikileaks that his government had sought foreign assistance to help “manage” his predecessor, former President Jerry John Rawlings who, the leaks claimed, was becoming a problem to the Kufuor-led administration.

“Manage JJ Rawlings? For what? Who said it? That is what I mean by hearsay. My government was very much on top of the business of managing Ghana and I believe my government was very competent,” Mr Kufuor said on the programme recorded at his Airport West residence in Accra.

He also dismissed reports alleging assassination plots on the Editor-in Chief of the Enquirer Newspaper, Raymond Archer during his presidency.

Mr. Archer, who corroborated the Wikileaks report, said it took the intervention of business magnate, Asuma Banda, to restore peace between him and the then president Kufuor, adding that the reason for the assassination plot was due to his persistence in exposing corrupt deals within the Kufuor administration.

However, Mr. Kufuor challenged Raymond Archer to show just one corrupt deal he (Raymond) uncovered for which his government wanted to do away with him.

But speaking in an interview with Alhassan Suhuyini on Radio Gold’s Newspaper Review, Kofi Wayo opined that if the report contained in the controversial Wikileaks exposé had favoured the former President, he would have behaved differently. To him, ex-president Kufuor’s comments in the interview is an indication that he (Kufuor) is ‘a common thief and must be treated as such’.

The host, who found the remarks by Kofi Wayo to be derogatory, asked him to be mindful of his utterances, but he (Wayo) would not budge. Subsequently however, Suhuyini was forced to render an apology to the Office of the ex-president (Kufuor) on behalf of the business mogul when the vituperative went an octave higher.

But, an angry Kofi Wayo, clearly unenthused by the apology rendered on his behalf posited thus: “this is why Ghana is not making progress…I have the evidence in front of me and so they should take me to court… I hope you are not apologizing on my behalf?...the wickedness of the Kufuor’s administration is there for all mankind to see…this is a man whom when we had no water to drink, he spent over 600,000 pounds to buy chains to award himself; and you are telling me this is a person that God will bless?”

“Before Kufuor (became President), he was complaining of so much difficulty which had been put on Ghanaians by then President Rawlings; however, when he came into power, he worsen the case spending so much money…in America where I grew up, this guy would have been in jail…he just came to enrich his family, he didn’t do anything for the country. Let me tell Ghanaians, there is a God, a true God not Obinim God or any other god that we worship; and God will deal with Kufuor…but do not follow this guy…this guy is a liar…,” Kofi Wayo.