I am neither a trained journalist nor any acclaimed reporter; therefore I only write on events exactly how I witnessed it, and share my opinion freely without fear or favor. NPP’s Presidential candidate until I met him yesterday at 5020 West Belfort Avenue, Houston, Texas had favorable opinion about him. They say, first impression matters hence his leadership style and the impression left with the good and hardworking people of Houston Community can be best described as gargantuan doubt about whether he is the right NPP candidate in the first place. Below is the account of his town hall meeting yesterday [Saturday, February 04, 2012].

The meeting was advertised as 3pm-6pm and well-publicized event through the various Ghanaian churches. I personally arrived there 3:05pm local time and saw handful of people awaiting the commencement of the town hall meeting. For about one hour, people were slowly coming in and the organizers were helplessly trying to get their electronics and computer connection straight. We kept hearing intermittently “we apologize for the delay”, and until finally the good news came in at 4:10pm that Nana Akuffo-Addo was on his way to the town hall auditorium. At approximately 4:25pm, Nana Akuffo-Addo arrived and went straight to take his seat. Our expectation was that he would take few minutes to shake hands and greet the people that took time-off to come and listen to his political talk. Let’s forgive him and move on.

The event quickly started and quickly got to Nana Akuffo-Addo’s speech.

Again, our expectation was that he was going to give an excusable reason why he was over an hour late or perhaps apologize to the people but that never happened. Is this the behavior that gives people the perception that he is an arrogant person? I can’t agree more on that! As you may expect from a typical politician, Mr. Akuffo-Addo rattled over his plans that, to say the least, were not new ideas in the Ghanaian political system. He talked about how he will reform the education sector, reform the national health insurance scheme to make it work, and praised how Ghanaians abroad are achieving milestones in their endeavors.

During his 35min long speech, a gentleman dressed with NPP Party colors interrupted with NPP, NPP! NPP!! Ose yie celebratory song. The gentleman ceased the opportunity of the crowd’s response to the call of the rhythm to energize the people. This die-hard fan proceeded to ask for 1 or 2mins to teach the crowd a song that sought to question where Mr. Woyome had hidden the money he stole from the good people of Ghana. At this point Mr. Akuffo-Addo’s bodyguard rushed to literally assault this innocent man to the amazement of the enchanted crowd; I then intervened and shouted leave him alone AND we don’t want secret service type harassment to any Ghanaian in the freedom of our Houston abode. The man was left alone for a minute or 2 when the crowd pleaded with him to allow the august speaker to wrap up his speech.

Nana Akuffo-Addo’s speech resumed with bombardment of how inefficient Mills led administration has been. The latter part of his speech continued in tones of condemnation of how the current national drive is a disaster and the promise that NPP’s administration will implement Anas style to stamp out the corrupt officials. The speech ended at approximately 5:30pm which was then followed with Q&A. Here is where Nana’s hypocrisy and arrogance were confirmed.

The moderator restrictively asked for concise question each, citing time constrain as the reason. The obvious question was who constrained the time? Was this one of those old dirty tricks to avoid tough questions? Is it because Houstonians avoided prescreened questions? I was the first Ghanaian to contribute in response to the Q&A section. I wished Nana well, and even prophesied that I will visit him at the Castle next year [I take that back for now]. I told the moderator my 45min drive to attend the event didn’t worth one concise question, and that I would ask 2 questions and suggest 2 ideas. To my amazement I received huge applause for that bold talk.

Ladies and gentlemen these were my questions: (1) with due respect Mr. Aspiring President, could you tell us 2 things you would undo with Executive order in your first day in office? (2) And what guarantees can you give us that foot soldiers would be kept busy with meaningful skill set improvement to prepare them for the job market rather than being the determinants of who the government can appoint to occupy what position, as we see of the NDC today? I added 2 ideas in response to his speech but before I could finish the moderator snatched the microphone from me; an action that any disciplined leader will condemned and ask that the idea [bad or good] be completed in sentence. But to the surprise of the audience, we saw the hypocritical side of Nana Akuffo-Addo in his answer to my question (1), and I quote him: “I am disciplined so I will stick to the rules the moderator set and answer only one of the 2 questions.” That was a direct insult to his fellow Ghanaian and a portrayal that he was the good servant who follows the master’s directive. And oh, did I hear him say he was disciplined? Come again, the moderator [part of the NPP organizers] set the rule to meet 3pm, you and your entourage showed up 4:25pm, and all of the suddenly you are a disciplined Presidential Candidate who follows the rules? This is not an act of discipline but rather an act of hypocrisy and indirect confirmation of a typical political insider. This is why many Houstonians including myself are nervous about his leadership approach. But the point is that NDC does not have a better option for Ghanaians either. Our option now is to offer constructive criticism in hopes that the NPP leader will listen. If Nana were that disciplined, fair and good servant as he made us believe, we would have seen in his responses that concise questions demand concise answers however Nana used 3min on average to answer 30sec question. Tell me, is this a rule follower?

What a shame! NPP-USA Houston Chapter and the NPP Presidential Aspirant, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo, failed the Ghanaian Community in Houston to host a successful town hall meeting. Although I have long been admirer of the NPP party, and written articles in defense of NPP and in condemnation of NDC, I now feel I rushed to judgment in some of my articles. I went to this gathering as an independent Ghanaian who wanted to join the NPP but my experience has given me a reason to hesitate and question if I am associating with the right Party. Maybe it is just a one-time incidence, maybe Nana will change and be a leader who is always in favor of the people, who sympathizes and listens rather than be in favor of his cronies, dodges questions, and pretend to listen. I can no longer defend the claims that Nana Akuffo-Addo is arrogant, rude, ruthless, and indiscipline from section of Ghanaians. The good news is that these behaviors can be changed with wise counseling and a sobering approach to issues. For that reason, I give Nana Akuffo-Addo another chance to reverse his course of direction before I give it a second thought to joining NPP later.

By B.B. Nkrumah, bnkrumah@yahoo.com