Iconic U-turns made by the Akufo-Addo government in 2022

Effective communication, many experts have said, is a very critical part of the governance process of any nation.

According to experts, this builds trust between the government and the citizenry.

It, therefore, does not help when the leader of the government, the president, makes public pronouncements that are contrary to statements his appointees have made or makes statements that later have to be explained or clarified by his appointees.

Yet, there were instances in 2022 when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made some statements that led to some mistrust in his government, which left his appointees scrambling to explain.

Here are some of these instances:

'I'm not so sure Aisha Huang was deported' – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in an interview in Ho, during his 2022 tour of the Volta Region, contradicted statements by some of his appointees that illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) kingpin, Aisha Huang, was deported from Ghana in 2018.

"… I am not still sure whether she was, in fact, deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it.

"Whichever way it is, she has become a sort of nickname for all that the 'galamsey' represents and also, unfortunately, for the involvement of Chinese nationals in this illicit trade," he said.



But Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in an attempt to explain the president's comments, said the president used a figure of speech and the most important thing was that Aisha Huang was repatriated in 2018, contrary to earlier reports that she was deported.

He went on to explain the difference between deportation and repatriation.

To him, the Minister of Interior has the power to "deport" while the Immigration Service has the power to "repatriate" via notice.

"While the Minister for Interior can deport, the Immigration Service cannot. The instrument which the Immigration Service uses in such circumstances is a repatriation notice. Either way, the effect was that she was caused to exit from Ghana at the material moment," Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah tweeted.

There will be no haircuts – Akufo-Addo:

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo refuted suggestions that his government would buy off government bonds at rates lower than their expected returns – "haircut on Government bonds".

Addressing the nation on measures being taken by the government to rescue the economy, on Sunday, October 31, Akufo-Addo said: "I also want to assure all Ghanaians that no individual or institutional investor, including pension funds, in government treasury bills or instruments will lose their money, as a result of our ongoing IMF negotiations.

"There will be no "haircuts", so I urge all of you to ignore the false rumours, just as, in the banking sector clean-up, government ensured that the 4.6 million depositors affected by the exercise did not lose their deposits."

He cautioned, "those who make it a habit of publishing falsehoods, which result in panic in the system, I say to them that the relevant state agencies will act against such persons".

But the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, later came out to explain Akufo-Addo's assurances that there will be no haircut covers only principals.

"My understanding is that no principals will be touched. No principals will have a haircut. The debt sustainability strategy is yet to be announced in full.

"When they are done with the rest of the strategy, and they come out and do a full announcement, we will have clarity on the form that the debt restructuring will take," the information minister said.



My government has constructed 10,875 kilometres of new roads – Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo during his presentation of the State of the Nation Address, stated that the greatest infrastructure achievement his government has registered is in the road sector.

Addressing the country in parliament, he said his government had completed, upgraded, and improved over 10,000 kilometers of road in the space of 5 years.

President Akufo-Addo even gestured that the Members of Parliament (MPs) should open their eyes to see the roads.

"It is in the road sector that we have registered the greatest infrastructure achievement. I know that the word 'unprecedented' is often used with careless abandon in our public discourse, but I use it carefully and purposefully", the President said.

"In the five years of my government, so far, more roads have been built, improved, and upgraded than at any other equivalent period under any government in the history of Ghana. Some ten thousand, eight hundred and seventy-five (10,875) kilometres of new roads have been constructed in these five (5) years," the president said.

In an attempt to clarify the president's figures, the Roads and Highways Ministry said the 10,875 kilometers of roads constructed included ongoing work on unpaved roads.

According to the ministry, any activity on the road amounts to construction.

The construction work the Ministry said it does on unpaved roads includes grading, gravelling, re-gravelling, and spot improvement.

"In 2017, the total network size was 78,402 kilometers. As of the end of 2021, the projected network size has increased to 94,203 kilometers. The data on completed works has subsequently been updated to 10,875 km as of the end of February 2022.

"Over the past 5 years, a lot of investment had gone into both the paved and unpaved roads to improve the riding quality on our roads. The 10,875 kilometres of roads constructed have been on both paved and unpaved roads," a statement by the ministry read.



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