Is Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Ready To Be President?

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On December 23, 2007, Akufo-Addo was elected as the NPP's 2008 presidential candidate at a party congress, receiving 47.96% of valid votes (1,096 votes). By every count, this author anticipates Nana Akufo Addo to be the next president of Ghana. This author believes Nana Akufo-Addo will be a great president. His reason is partly derived from Nana Akufo Addo’s long standing experience and initial efforts to unite the Party (NPP). This author has confidence in the candidacy of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and therefore wishes to call on all to support his candidacy for 2009.

In my previous article entitled, Presidential Politics and the Future of Ghana: Where is Ghana heading to? I made a case for the amendment of the 1992 constitution to suit our present needs. I wrote that the original constitution of Ghana had the objective of protecting a colonial regime based on protecting the office of Her Majesty, the Queen of England. Then, one dared not disagree with the monarch. In fact, this could be the basis of all the corruption and cronyisms in Ghana politics on one hand and Africa’s political demise on the other. Our constitutions, by their very premise, do no augur for change and development. It has more or less been a domineering document and legitimizes pseudo-slavery or master-servant relationship. Good citizens (of Africa) have been turned into crooks and thieves. The very tenants of our constitutions make bribery and corruption legal, especially where the President sees it as only “a perception”. Therefore, this author believes the first item on our next government’s business must be to revisit the constitution of the land and make the necessary amendments to break from the past. Not until this is done Ghana, and for that matter Africa, would always be held at ransom by greedy politicians and thieves. My humble advice for the next President of Ghana, to add to the above is: Use the fresh ideas of the Youth. Tap into their ideals and put the elders at the shadows as advisers to correct and balance the over exuberance of the Youth.

Abstain from parading the castle with old boys, cronies and classmates, like your predecessors did, and got little done.

Pick your policy makers from a dynamic pool and push the country forward.

Pick your cabinet from among the best brains even if you have to cross the carpet and select a few from the opposition.

Adopt the policy of transparency

Encourage weekly and monthly reports from ministers and departmental heads rather than waiting at the end of the year, only to find them cooking statistics- copying and presenting old reports- would be the better form of presidential oversight.

Meet the Press on monthly basis or, at least, quarterly

Encourage debate over national issues

A caution for the next president would be to understand that the textbook leadership era is gone; to succeed one would have to be transformational and embrace change and new challenges.

Abstain from politics-as-usual: 1. One example would be to stay away from unproductive meetings, committees and conferences in the pretext to reform. For instance,

2. Abstain from commissions that pretend to “Reform” and by so doing wasting the countries resources, and implement those already on file.

3. Put those resources into modernizing the ministry in question. Ministry of Education, for example, would rather need computers for the schools, going digital or electronic and limiting on textbook spending; entering into license agreements to be able to photocopy materials for ailing schools in the remote villages (after providing each school, department and faculty with enough computers, printers and photocopiers

Almost every other year Ghana Government appoints a Commission and or Committees to reform education, spending millions of state funds, only to find it worst than the previous years

This s is only part of the conversation. This author’s writings only depict the frustrations of the many Ghanaians who are not benefiting from the “loot”. As Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy had stated in the Foreword to A New Agenda for Ghana; Building Bridges for Positive Change:

“ANEW AGENDA FOR GAHANA by Okyere Bonna is the collective cry of a generation for change. It produces and explores the opinions, reputations and attitudes of a wide range of Ghanaians. The views explored are varied and include those of established parties and candidates as well as new parties and candidates” (Bonna 2006, p11)

Often leadership neither gets to hear the struggles of the masses. Nor do they get a good picture of what is going on around them since those advisers and close friends and allies tend to be sycophants. No sooner than “goodhearted” people are appointed to positions of Trust they leave their passion and promises at the door and easily get bamboozled with political looting. As opportunists, they easily get swayed at doing whatever will keep them on their job or the good side of the President. Therefore they tend to become rubber stamps always telling the President he is doing so well in the polls even when he is least popular. May be what Ghana needs in 2009 are men and women of principles and not goodhearted politicians. Would our next president, therefore, fish for men and women guided and driven by PRINCIPLES and not PhDs?

May God bless our President(s) with wisdom and discernment! Long live Ghana’s democracy.