2022 IN REVIEW: Four times Akufo-Addo made international headlines in 2022

Captivating speeches that make international news headlines and gain applause from the global community have been a feature of the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

One of such speeches was Akufo-Addo’s address to Ghanaians during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he said, "We knew what to do to bring the economy back to life, but not how to bring people back to life."

2022 was no different, with the president delivering an enchanting speech at the United Nations General Assembly and an interesting interview on the BBC. But this time around, the president also made international headlines for the wrong reasons.

This article looks at four times President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made headlines in the international media in the year.

Away! away! - Akufo-Addo booed on stage at Global Citizen Festival in Accra

One of the unfortunate incidents that happened was the booing of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as he was delivering a speech at the Global Citizen Festival, a global entertainment event, held at the Black Star Square in Accra.

Thousands of patrons were at the venue to witness the Global Citizen Festival, which had a number of local and international artistes performing.

When it was the turn of the president to make his presentation, a section of the crowd began clapping and chanting 'away, away..."

"The whole world is in Ghana today," the president is heard saying in a video sighted by GhanaWeb amid the 'away, away,' chants.

The chants subsided, and the president continued with his remarks from the brightly lit stage.



Musician 'exposes' Akufo-Addo over graphic theft

President Akufo-Addo was also accused of plagiarizing excerpts of a music video of a Ghanaian musician in a tourism promotional video he shared on social media.

The allegation that the president plagiarized excerpts of the music video made international headlines, with the BBC reporting it instead of its message of encouraging people to visit Ghana.

On September 27, 2022, a video was shared on Twitter by the President of Ghana to promote tourism in the country and welcome expatriates into the country.

The video caption read, "Beneath the deep blue sky, the Black Star is calling. Follow the stars and let them take you on a journey of our people. I invite everyone to the country at the centre of the world."

In a tweet that highlighted the tweet, Kirani Ayat, a Ghanaian artiste, said the president had used his video without consulting him.

According to Ayat, this was after the Ministry of Tourism failed to heed his [Kirani Ayat] plea to use the song ‘GUDA’ to endorse tourism in the North.

"The president of Ghana has used my video "GUDA" in this ad to promote Ghana. I was actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism in 2018/19 to use this video to push tourism in the North and got NO reply, yet today it’s in an ad and no one reached out to me for permission," he shared.

The president of Ghana has used my video “GUDA” in this ad to promote Ghana. I was actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism in 2018/19 to use this video to push tourism in the North and got NO reply, yet today it’s in an ad and no one reached out to me for permission. ????‍♂️ https://t.co/vLnAP0bRqf

— Kirani Ayat + The Spireeet ???? (@KiraniAYAT) September 27, 2022

Akufo-Addo’s interview with the BBC:

The president also caused a stir in his interview with the British broadcaster, the BBC, on its April 4, 2022 edition of its Focus on Africa programme hosted by Peter Okwoche.

There was a banter between President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the BBC’s Peter Okochwe over the health of Ghana’s economy when the president granted an interview to the global broadcaster.

The conversation between the President and Okochwe covered various sectors of the Ghanaian economy and recent occurrences in the socio-political space of the country.

The president was asked about the government’s recently passed Electronic Transfer (E-Levy) law, the tourism sector, and the Black Stars' qualification for the 2022 World Cup, among others.

On the economy, however, the host suggested that Ghana’s economy in its current state was doing terribly with the high cost of living and increasing fuel prices, among others.

But President Akufo-Addo maintained that the situation in Ghana was not as bad and that the current state of the economy was a result of global events in which Ghana was not isolated.





Every bullet, bomb that hits a target in Ukraine hits our pockets – Akufo-Addo tells UN:

The president again did not mix words as he was addressing the United Nations General Assembly when he called out the international for not supporting African countries enough, whom he said were becoming poorer because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. 

Akufo-Addo held that the war, which started in February 2022, aggravated an already precarious situation for African economies that were starting to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Akufo-Addo said the war had a direct impact on Africa, especially in the area of food supply, triggering importantly, inflation.

"Two years ago, our world came to a thundering halt, as we cowered from a health pandemic from an unknown, malicious virus, coupled with a devastating global economic pandemic. High budget deficits were no longer concerns of only developing nations.

"By 2021, COVID-19 had pushed Africa into the worst recession for half a century. A slump in productivity and revenues, increased pressures on spending and spiralling public debts confronted us without relent," he submitted.

On the specific case of the Russian invasion, even though Moscow insists it was a military operation, Akufo-Addo stated: "As we grappled with these economic challenges, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine burst upon us, aggravating an already difficult situation.

"It is not just the dismay that we feel at seeing such deliberate devastation of cities and towns in Europe in the year 2022, we are feeling this war directly in our lives in Africa.

"Every bullet, every bomb, every shell that hits a target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and our economies in Africa. The economic turmoil is global with inflation as the number one enemy this year," he added.



Watch the second part of Elvis Afriyie Ankrah's interview on GhanaWeb TV below:





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