Since the occupation of the presidential seat on January 7, 2017 by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, he sounded spectacularly great in his inaugural speech.

He unambiguously called on all Ghanaians to be citizens but not spectators. What a great call to duty! It later turned out that a major part of his inaugural speech was a plagiarized one from two former US presidents.

For one and a half terms of his presidency, Nana Akufo-Addo has been advising his fellow African presidents as well as using national and international platforms to make major pronouncements in the areas of corruption and nepotism, climate change, national Cathedral of Ghana, galamsey operations and Africa’s dealings with the West when it comes to borrowing.

A cursory assessment of president Akufo-Addo’s performance until now clearly
demonstrates that he is very good at advising others while he does next to nothing himself.

In other words, the president’s words and actions do not match. Here is the big why I make this assertion!

Akufo-Addo meeting Emmanuel Macron of France at the Jubilee House, Accra

In a similar fashion in 2017, when President Emmanuel Macron paid a courtesy to President Akufo-Addo in Accra, the latter decided to make another viral announcement on how African leaders should behave.

To quote him, President Akufo-Addo said ‘We can no longer continue to make policy for ourselves in our continent based on whatever support that the western world can give us’. His admonishment was that Africa should end its dependency on their former colonial rulers, the United States, the European Union, or multilateral institutions like the World Bank and IMF.

Meanwhile, under the close watch of Akufo-Addo, his Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has increased Ghana’s public debt stock from 122 billion GHS in 2016 to now about 600 billion GHS in 2023 from reckless borrowings. Fitch Ratings has further downgraded Ghana from Junk status to ‘Restrictive Default’.

To add insult to injuries, our President has ignored numerous calls to sack this non- performing Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

Advising African leaders in Washington DC

When President Akufo-Addo was also speaking during the opening of the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC in December 2022, he advised his fellow African leaders to stop being beggars.

According to him, that will earn Africa the needed global respect, and more resilience to make the continent a more prosperous one. He also bemoaned the situation where African countries often seek budget support from multilateral donors to survive economically. This is indeed the way our dear African
continent should go.

Instead of President Akufo-Addo showing the way, he and his economic team are currently begging the IMF for a $3bn (£2.4bn) loan to alleviate Ghana’s mismanaged economy.

It is common knowledge that Akufo-Addo and his economic team begged the Parish Club to convince China to provide Creditor assurance for the approval of the ongoing IMF deal. Is it not shameful to advise African leaders and turn around to be begging?

Concluding remarks

I urge the readership to look out for Part ll containing the inconsistencies of president Akufo-Addo’s words and actions while being one of the leaders of Africa now.

This Part ll will specifically dilate on other contradictory statements from Akufo-Addo in the areas of galamsey menace, climate change crisis, countless scandals on corruption and nepotism, National Cathedral building, and other failed and/or struggling NPP campaign promises.

President Akufo-Addo has succeeded in getting all kinds of accolades from the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, and the largest opposition party, the NDC that will be put into context in Part ll.

It is an undeniable fact that president Akufo-Addo is well-known for his preaching virtues while practicing vices as his words do not tally with his actions in government now.

Ghana deserves better leadership than what we are seeing under this poor performing Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government.

I am a citizen not a spectator.