By Margaret Jackson

May 19, 2012

I am sometimes amazed by the kind of lifestyle of Nana Akufo-Addo who claims to be running for the highest office of our cherished Ghana. And what even startles me the most is the kind of people managing his so-called floundering campaign. When it comes to big talk and big promises Akufo-Addo has never disappointed me and many Ghanaians.

Most people in Ghana know that Akufo-Addo lives in Nima, a sprawling suburb full of Moslems in Accra. In fact, Akufo-Addo is always quick to tout his Nima credentials to throw dust into the Moslem community that he is one of them, when in fact he detests them.

I am waiting for the day that reporters in Ghana would corner Akufo-Addo and simply ask him how many times he has even gone round his Nima neighborhood since 1996 when he decided to run for the highest office of the land to shake hands with the people there. You would be surprised to know that Akufo-Addo has never done it even once. Or reporters should find out from Akufo-Addo’s wife if she has ever gone to the Nima Market even to shake hands with the market women there or simply to buy tomatoes.

If Akufo-Addo feels too big to even identify with the ordinary people of Nima where he lives, would you believe him when he goes to a Zongo community in the Eastern Region and makes a big but vain promise to develop the Zongo Communities in Ghana? No one should be fooled into believing Akufo-Addo. Its election time and the guy is desperate for votes. This is a gimmick by Akufo-Addo since charity they say begins at home. If this man cannot even be friendly with the Nima people how can he develop the Zongo communities if he becomes president?

Akufo-Addo and his running mate, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia are running on the achievements ex-president Kufuor. You can hear the “terrible duo” trumpeting the so-called achievements of Kufour saying what Kufuor did cannot be matched by any past leader of the country. Yet Bawumia goes to a Zongo community in the midst of his praises to the Kufuor’s administration and sees the neglect in that community. Was the NPP sleeping during the 8 long years that they were in power? Why did they not develop the Zongo communities to make things easier for Akufo-Addo/Bawumia ticket?

And to further insult the intelligence of Ghanaians, Bawumia charges the NDC to stop the propaganda and develop the Zongo community. President Mills has been in power for only 3 years and Bawumia wants him to develop the Zongo communities whilst Kufour was in power for 8 years and did nothing in the Zongo communities.

The $100 million that the Akufo-Addo’s campaign has estimated to create a fund to develop the over 240 Zongo communities in Ghana is nothing to write home about. The money is woefully inadequate. Akufo-Addo simply rushed to put a price tag on the so-called fund for fear of the NDC challenging them to come out with specifics. If Akufo-Addo can rush and within two days churn out an estimated bogus price tag on the Zongo community fund, why for three long months has he failed or refused to tell Ghanaians how much his so-called free Senior High School education would cost.

Akufo-Addo lives in Nima yet he does not know Nima. Akufo-Addo and Bawumia should go to Nima one night and see something for themselves. Even if their pin drops, I bet they would be able to find it, because President Mills has put street lights in Nima. And the most gratifying news which Akufo-Addo has not seen is that the Nima Highway which was first constructed during General Acheampong’s regime has been asphalted right from Akufo-Addo’s house all the way to Accra Girls. Do you want to hear more?

The Nima clinic which has outlives its usefulness is being turned into a full-fledged Millennium City Hospital by the Mills government at the cost of 10 million dollars. And the Maamobi Clinic has also been turned into a hospital by the NDC government, whilst drains are being constructed from the Kawukudu Junction through Nima, Maamobi, Paloma and Asylum Down. This is indeed something to write home about.

Therefore, the Zongo communities should not be deceived by Akufo-Addo and Bawumia. They have nothing to offer them. Akufo-Addo was elected a flagbearer of the NPP about two years ago. How many times did he visit a Zongo community? Not even once. This man waited until Bawumia became his running mate and tried to exploit Bawumia’s Moslem credentials by making a vain promise of developing the Zongo community. And strangely enough the announcement of how much the so-called fund would cost was even not announced by Akufo-Addo but by one of his political hacks.

http://majjacks80.blogspot.com magjackson80@yahoo.com