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Opinions of Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Columnist: Daily Post

Why is Akufo-Addo so cheap?

It is clear that though Akufo-Addo belongs to the nauveau rich in the society and under normal circumstances would not like to have anything to do with the ordinary man, so desperate is he for political power that he has decided to play the cheapest of politics to achieve his heart desire.

We are talking about a man who does not mind flaunting his high-classed status in society to the extent that when his mother passed away (may she rest in peace), even the kind of spoons and plates they used to eat with when his father was President of Ghana found its way into her biography on the funeral and burial brochure distributed to those who had come to mourn with him.

But, thanks to his desperate ambition to become President, he has decided to stoop to conquer; he has decided to force himself to identify himself with the poor, the needy and the vulnerable only to hoodwink Ghanaians into believing that he is a man of the people.

During the 2008 elections, therefore, Ghanaians heard him shouting himself hoarse that he was a Nima boy. Then he went about boarding trotros and buying roasted plantain, a.k.a. Kofi Brokeman by the way side just to deceive Ghanaians that he is an ordinary man.

As the 2012 election, which represents Nana Akufo-Addo’s last chance to be President of Ghana, draws nearer, he has found new ways of courting cheap popularity among Ghanaians; anytime there is a disaster, he would dash to the scene with the speed of light to commiserate with the people.

And so it came to pass that he dashed to the north to ‘commiserate’ with the flood victims, dashed back to Accra to provide water for stranded hajj pilgrims and just a couple of days ago dashed to Agbogbloshie market to ‘commiserate’ with traders whose wares got razed down by fire.

We are talking about the Nana Akufo-Addo who never once provided stranded hajj pilgrims with even a glass of water when he was Foreign Minister of Ghana. This is the Nana Akufo-Addo who was missing in action when Ghana was rocked by the May 9 disaster at Accra Sports stadium when he was the Attorney-General of Ghana.

Today, the Nana Akufo-Addo who didn’t care a hoot about the over one hundred and twenty six soccer fans who lost their lives in the May 9 disaster and the many stranded Hajj pilgrims when his party ruled Ghana is all over the place commiserating with anyone who has suffered a disaster.

Let it not be that he has also started praying for more disasters to befall Ghanaians so that he can have more opportunity to show he is caring.

Our verdict on Nana Akufo-Addo and his attempt to show Ghanaians he cares is that he is playing cheap politics. Simply put, he is being so cheap.