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Opinions of Thursday, 13 January 2011

Columnist: VoiceOfReason

Nana Akufo-Addo Is A Nuisance To The NPP - Part 1

Besides being incompetent and arrogant, Akufo-Addo is a hypocrite who will
say anything to get elected. In the 2000 presidential run-off election that
Kuffour won, Nana told Mills to admit defeat before the election in order to
save the nation some money but in 2008, when he was trailing Mills by 23,055
votes in the run-off election with only Tain constituency yet to vote
because the voting materials got there late, he did not see the need to quit
to save the nation some money. He allowed the election to be held and when
he lost he threatened to challenge the result in court in order to delay or
even stop the handover to Mills. The whole country was edgy with the fear
that the least street conflict between NDC and NPP supporters could escalate
into carnage, yet, Nana was unwilling to give up until he found out that
most of the people he counted on for support wanted him to throw in the
towel. Today, President Gbagbo of Ivory Coast finds himself in a corner just
like Nana did in 2008 but in order to look like a peacemaker, he is urging
Mills to tell Gbagbo to surrender.

Just hours after we learned from WikiLeaks that the White House is aware of
President Mills’ effort to fight drugs in Ghana, Nana came out to say that
he has his own unique way to solve the problem once and for all. Who are you
trying to fool, Nana? Just because the report blamed the NPP government and
did not single out individuals, Nana is trying to distance himself from the
issue. Nana, did you have a unique way to fight drugs when you were in
charge of the judiciary? The fact is that Nana’s fingerprints are over all
the WikiLeaks exposés. Who was the Attorney-General who single-handedly
sidestepped the law and returned seized assets to Amankwa, the international
drug dealer? Who was the Attorney-General when the case docket on the
Dzorwulu-3 disappeared? How did the Dzorwulu-3 flee the country after they
had been arrested? Did Nana not push hard for the ‘Amoateng Law’ that would
have allowed convicted Ghanaian drug smugglers to be returned home to serve
their terms?

As a minister, Nana couldn’t even stop corruption at the passport office but
now that he is out of parliament he claims to have a blueprint to eradicate
drugs from Ghana. When Nana was in charge of Foreign Affairs, the Crusading
Guide exposed the blatant scandal at the passport office that had beset the
nation for many years and reached its apex butnana Nana, true to his name,
Mr DoNothing, he did NOTHING about it. To prove their point, the Crusading
Guide acquired a passport in the full name of President Kufour with the
picture of Mr. B. A. Mensah, a very popular Ghanaian businessman, without
providing birth certificates and other necessary requirements. In a similar
fraudulent manner passports were obtained for Vice President Aliu Mahama,
and the Inspector General of Police. When the case went to print and
evidence was shown to the director of passports, Mr. Kwesi Quartey, he could
not hold back his tears because he knew he was going to lose his job, but
surprisingly, Mr. DoNothing did NOTHING about it. To this day genuine Ghana
passports are in the hands of non-Ghanaians, including prostitutes and
drug-trafficker, some of whom cannot even pronounce ‘their’ names in the
books. In fact, Nana claimed that his ministerial office was broken into and
nothing except diplomatic passports were stolen, again, he did NOTHING. How
can such a man be trusted to rule a country?

Following the WikiLeaks disclosures, Washington will laugh at our stupidity
if we elect Nana, who was in charge of the judiciary when drugs became most
prevalent in Ghana, as our president. Ghana has come a long way to turn
back. Today, we are seen as an emerging African democracy because both
Rawlings and Kuffour handed over power peacefully when they had to and
President Obama paid us a visit in recognition of that. The performance of
the Black Stars in the past two World Cups and the drilling of oil have put
the spotlight on us. I am optimistic that the good people of Ghana will stop
Nana from dimming the spotlight with his image. The NPP must have now
regretted for choosing a loser as their leader, but it’s too late. Nana will
remain a nuisance to the NPP for year to come.

By VoiceOfReason