It is becoming apparent that the only way Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and the NPP will listen to the plight of Ghanaians is to vote them out on December 7, 2024, for their economic mismanagement, poor governance, and worsening living conditions faced by all Ghanaians. Although President Akufo-Addo was considered a consummate democrat, a no-nonsense person, and a touted human rights lawyer, his regime has turned out to be a huge disappointment to many for the past almost 8 years!

The legendary inactions or half-hearted actions, insensitivity, and unpopularity of this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime lend credence to the need to change direction in the upcoming 2024 general elections. In 2017, President Akufo-Addo made Ghanaians believe that he needed a large government of over 110 Ministers in his first term because he was in a ‘hurry’ to implement his development agenda despite strong public views to downsize looking at our peculiar economic situation.

Furthermore, Nana Akufo-Addo has been averse to ministerial reshuffles and could only do a few pseudo-ministerial reshuffles after a number of his Ministers resigned to pursue their presidential ambitions in his second term. There have been no corresponding results observed by Ghanaians until now despite a bloated government.

Additionally, there have been actions of this government, which revealed the level of insensitivity on its part towards Ghanaians for the past 8 years. For instance, there have been loud calls for the removal of the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta from office for his recklessness in both the Majority and Minority Groups in Parliament, but the President dragged his feet before letting him go after taking us through the draconian IMF-induced policies and tax handles.

It is also important to note that corruption and nepotism became worse under this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government. This government is highly nepotistic and has registered numerous corruption scandals including but not limited to Agyapa, PDS, and BOST-contaminated oil scandals. President Akufo-Addo is, thus, tagged as a ‘Clearing Agent’ for his impatience shown in the defense of his embattled Appointees and other NPP officials.

This Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime only took pride in the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP). For example, it has taken the OSP’s investigation of the Cash hoarding saga involving Madam Cecilia Dapaah of the NPP to expose the insincerity of this government.

This current governing NPP regime heavily chastised the erstwhile Mahama-led government for burdening Ghanaians with borrowing, and numerous nuisance taxes imposed on Ghanaians. Ironically, this Akufo-Addo-led government has rather engaged in unbridled borrowing and the introduction of more nuisance taxes leading to the unprincipled U-turn to the IMF for a bailout and its associated conditionalities.

The level of greed in terms of extracting gold via high-tech galamsey (HTG) operations has reached its unenviable highest proportions with the complete devastation of our Forest Reserves and water bodies in mining communities.

The unpopularity of this governing NPP regime is not surprising under the current circumstances of the country. President Akufo-Addo will go down in history as the worst-performing President of Ghana in the Fourth Republic. This is owing to the continuous trajectory of unbridled national borrowing, worsening economic indicators like inflation and exchange rate hikes, emboldened corruption, worsening HTG activities, etc. eating the nation up under this Akufo-Addo-led government.

The phenomenon of intimidation and appallingly bad economic, social, and environmental situation in which we find ourselves under this Akufo-Addo-led regime is indeed concerning. The only way to see improved governance in our country will be by voting out this unsatisfactory governing NPP government led by Dr. Bawumia who wants to lead the NPP into 2024.

If no sustained pressure from the Youth and other well-meaning Ghanaians including key stakeholders e.g. CSOs, Labor Unions, etc. is put on this appalling Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime, do not expect anything substantial to be done. As it stands now, President Akufo-Addo has nothing to lose politically as he needs no more votes from Ghanaians and will easily ignore the cries of Ghanaians.