President Akufo-Addo, if he was in the classroom, would have scored low marks according to some journalists following his media encounter on Wednesday, 19th December, 2018.
According to a section of the media who were invited to the press conference, the President spent 40 minutes hailing himself and his administration leading to a reduction in the time for asking questions.
They claim it is the 'worst' media encounter ever held.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has described the President’s comparison of the controversial medical drone deal to the botched guinea fowl project under the previous administration as petty.
" . . one low point of the President’s performance was [the] comparison of his government’s medical drone deal to that of the SADA Guinea fowl issue under the erstwhile Mahama government which was petty and unnecessary,” MFWA stated in the section assessing the President’s performance.
However, the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says in as much as he welcomes the various criticisms, there is no media encounter ever held that every journalist have been able to ask questions.
According to him "it was not intentional . . . we will not get 100 percent, but we did our best and going forward, we will build on it and make it better".
40 minutes for Prez Akufo-Addo
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah also defended President Akufo-Addo's 40-minute speech.
He said it was important for the President to make known his achievements and various works done since he assumed office “and that is what he did . . we did as much as we could within the time constraint . . . I understand a lot of journalists wanted to ask questions; we will take reactions from the media as feedback and I assure them we will improve on it.”
In general, he described the media encounter as fairly balanced which need to be built on.