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Opinions of Monday, 5 March 2012

Columnist: Boateng, Chris Gyamfi

Truely, Who Is Akuffo Addo?

So, who is Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo at all? He is either confused of what he wants to do in life or he is simply a hypocrite who can’t be taken seriously. Akuffo Addo doesn’t believe in what he says and never says what he believes in and therefore we ask again, can Akuffo Addo ever be trusted?

Akuffo Addo is reported to have insinuated that Africa had no time with visionless leaders; paradoxically, he lacks the foresight to acknowledge that he was referring to himself. Where was Akuffo Addo’s vision when he couldn’t manage his father’s hotel, a legacy nursed and nurtured by his late father till his death but as a painful characteristic failure of Akuffo Addo, he sold the hotel instead of marshalling a “vision” to manage and bring it to fruition. Where was Akuffo Addo’s vision when as an MP for Akyem Abuakwa for a whooping twelve (12) years, supervised the collapse of the government hospital in his constituency? Where was Akuffo Addo’s vision when he aided J. A. Kofi Diawuo Kuffuor to mess up Ghana’s economy only to turn around in a speech in 2009 to tell his boss President Mills to fix the economy?

The ubiquitous nature of his public utterances is setting tongues wagging and inquiring minds asking as to who actually is Akuffo Addo? Is this the man who is vociferously spurring his supporters on with his all-die-be die clarion call today or he is the one calling for peaceful elections the next day?. Who is Akuffo Addo at all or who is he trying to deceive with his double talks and outright lies? One of NPP’s propaganda media outlets Myjoyonline, carried a news item on Wednesday 2/29/12 at their website http://politics.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201202/82326.php in which the defeated 2008 NPP candidate was purported to have stated in London that he was committed to blood free-elections and that he will not shed a single blood in order to get elected! A critical analysis of Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo’s public speeches and utterances in Ghana as we catalogued below however, paints a different image of this man and this prompts one to ask if he is for real?

For instance, the NPP flag-bearer’s public utterances in Ghana ranging from Accra in 2009 through his home Region to Northern and the Volta Regions speak volumes about a man who is prepared to let others resort to violence so that he will get his way. We recall his public speech in 2009 after returning from a trip in the UK when he dashed out of Ghana immediately after he had been defeated in the 2008 elections and marshalling all the bravados he could in stating that he was prepared to unleash his action troopers on Ghana and that things will never be the same in the country when they're done. His militancy and violent public utterances in Ghana are different from what he would want his foreign audiences hear and believe. For we recall his "Atiwa koraa yekyree won biribi kakraa" (and we know of the violence and the lies the NPP perpetrated during that bye-lection), indicating that the NPP just demonstrated a minute of the violence they can unleash on the country as amply exhibited at Atiwa, culminating in his master of all incendiary and violent "all-die-be-die" speech calling on his supporters to go all out to cause mayhem, kill as many people as they could and also be killed in order to ensure his ascendancy to power. Not only that, Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo carried his unbridled ambitions further by stating in Tamale that he must win the forthcoming elections at all cost while one of his loyal apostles called “Kabul” was issuing his threats that Ghana will become like Afghanistan in the event the NPP is not declared as a winner in the 2012 elections. Any responsible leader with a modicum of peace in him would have cautioned this “Kabul” individual to refrain from such utterances. Unfortunately, since under no circumstance would a crab begat a bird or since birds of the same feathers flog together, our “man of peace” Akuffo Addo stood aloof did not bother to repudiate nor denounce “Kabul” who was threatening the peace of Ghana. Is this the man who is saying he is for peaceful elections? Then again, Akuffo Addo’s public utterances exposes him as a man who is prepared to play the tribal card and cause mayhem, in the belief that it would help him achieve his parochial political ambitions. Facts must not be lost on those with rapt attention when Akuffo Addo’s issued his infamous “yen Akanfuo” speech calling on Akans to be bold and ensure that the Akan tribe stands up to the rest of Ghanaians and unleash violence on them as a means of winning the December elections.

One may argue that issuing such statements don’t mean the NPP man is personally engaging in violent acts that will undermine the peaceful, co-existing and coherence of our country. The fact however is that, he doesn't have to go round himself with guns, clubs and machetes in hand, and hack people to death for you to recognize a violent and temperamental individual who doesn’t care a hoot about human life as far as his selfish ambitions are concerned. Just a snap of the fingers would the trick for him.

There is no denying the fact that Akuffo Addo is so desperate to become president of Ghana due to the “…oil find…” as he declared in one of his speeches abroad recently; this therefore means the man will stop at nothing, including violence, and his choice of words are clear manifestation of his agenda in which he is constantly urging his followers on to engage in bloodshed.

He must however be reminded that he fools no one with his cheap London talk as a man of peace; he is rather blood letting vampire who would want to see Ghanaians live in pieces as far as that will ensure the realization of his desires, rather than the country living in peace.

Nonetheless, the man may think he is deceiving his international audiences but he must know that he is not clever than anyone but himself. The foreign embassies have their monitors in Ghana and they duly hear, see and listen to his desperate speeches, threats and war songs and know without an iota of doubt that he is a disgruntled, violent, temperamental, “…disorganized, a womanizer” individual who”…smokes a lot of weed…in the mornings” plunging him into thick clouds and that the German intelligence can bear testimony to this as we are made aware by Wikkileaks’ reports. He therefore doesn't come across as an honest person or the savior that he would want us to see him and therefore must not be taken seriously for his vague and hollow promises of believing in peace and therefore must not be entrusted with the destiny of our country.

I’m Koo Boateng and I endorse the statement I’ve made above.

Chris Gyamfi Boateng