Opinions of Wednesday, 5 September 2012

Columnist: Boateng, Chris Gyamfi

Visionary Akuffo Addo?

Mr. William Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo is reported on Tuesday 9/4/12 by one of the NPP mouthpieces – Myjoyonline, to have observed that the” NDC gov’t lacks vision and audacity to think big” and went ahead to roll out some of his litany hollow and unrealistic electoral promises calculated to hoodwink unsuspecting Ghanaian electorates. The fact is, tones of non-NPP Ghanaians cannot figure out any visionary and audacious big thinking that Mr. “Yen Akanfuo – All-Die-Be-Die – Atiwa KoraaYekyeree Won Biribi Kakraa” Akuffo Addo has exhibited ever since he showed his disgruntled face seeking to mount the presidency of our peaceful and beloved Ghana. Nor has he demonstrated any worthy accomplishments in his political life except for organizing and leading violent and deadly demonstrations as a means of blackmailing and destabilizing governments as one of his ardent followers mentioned to me recently. In fact, Akuffo Addo is not noted for any tangible achievements as MP for Akyem Abuakwa South for a whole twelve years or as a cabinet minister holding two positions in the eight miserable, pathetic and mumbling-fumbling rule of the NPP.
This brief background of William Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo as demonstrated above and his call for visionary and audacious big thinking therefore calls for a critical examination of the man and I am sure the questions below will not be deemed out of place to pose:
Will Mr. Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo Williams tell us “ at all cost” the kind of vision and audacity he exhibited during the 12 years that he served as MP for Akyem Abuakwa South? Any definitive achievements to show us? What vision and audacity did he show to fellow Ghanaians who were murdered in the Gambia and their respective families when he was the foreign affairs minister? Was there any vision and audacity on his part when some diplomatic passports got missing from the foreign affairs ministry under his watch as the substantive minister?
Does the divisive and war mongering “Yen Akanfuo” Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo recall Tsatsu Tsikata flooring him in the courts as the Attorney General and only took Kuffuor to shamefully packing the courts to reverse that ruling? Was that a mark of vision and audacity or a mark of failure? Mr. Addo, please take your lies, insults to the intelligence of Ghanaians, hollow big talks and deceptions to the marines as discerning Ghanaians know you from inside-out and outside-in and therefore don't consider your vague and vain promises any serious.
As indicated above, there is no known visionary and audacious big thinking or concrete achievements that this NPP flagbearer has bequeathed to the country but we surely know his string of failures for the periods that he served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice as well as the foreign affairs minister when his NPP was in power. For the reasons assigned below, we can say that we don’t know the man of being a visionary nor an audacious big thinker but we do know that he was a sore loser for eight years and therefore does not and should not be given the mandate to rule our peace-loving and beautiful Ghana where we are striving hard to shrug off the “Cocaine Coast” that the country was christened with when he was the A-G and Foreign Minister.
In view of the above, I am compelled to pose more questions to Mr. Addo Dankwa and I expect him and his minnows to truthfully, honestly and succinctly respond to enquiring minds on the following:

1. Akuffo Addo was a leading member of NPP and practically the presidential candidate when tons of cocaine got missing from the police headquarters under CCTV. Did he make any comments on such a glaring negligence, if not an act of criminal conspiracy? Or did he make any conscious efforts to apprehend the culprits? What did he know about this daylight robbery as A-G?

2. Benjilo was a hardened drug dealer in the 1990s. That drug criminal was arrested, tried, jailed by a court of competent jurisdiction and his drug-funded property in Accra confiscated. During the eight years of NPP rule, part of which Mr. All-Die-Be-Die Addo served as Attorney-General, Benjilo's property was de-confiscated. Did he know that drug-dealing was a crime when he championed the de-confiscation of Benjilo's property? Could that be termed as visionary and audacious big thinking?

3. Why did Akufo-Addo, as Attorney General, oversee the de-confiscation of frozen assets of Raymond Amankwah, a reputed global Cocaine Baron? And how did Raymond Amankwaa come in possession of Ghana Diplomatic passport (s) and roamed the world until he was caught in Brazil?

4. Did he not know that by literally presiding over that act, a terrible precedence was set and cocaine barons all over the globe were sent a signal that the NPP government of Ghana was in bed with drug peddling and that the government had no problem with the trafficking of narcotic drugs?

5. Did the fact that Raymond Amankwah was a relative of Akufo-Addo in anyway influence that decision? Was that a visionary and audacious big thinking that benefitted Ghanaians?

7. Was Raymond Amankwah, until his arrest in Brazil, not associated with Akufo-Addo's 2008 campaign?

8. Was Akufo-Addo not the Attorney General in the year 2001, when the state prosecution of Frank Benneh was suddenly discontinued, with the latter appearing on a campaign platform at Kasoa with him? Was / is mingling with drug barons and users a mark of visionary and audacious big thinkers?

9. Why did Akuffo Addo so mysteriously stop a case that the then NDC's Deputy Attorney General, Martin Amidu prosecuted so relentlessly until NPP took over the reins of office?

10. Does Akufo-Addo know that the discontinuation of that famous case was another strong signal of his own lack of political commitment, visionary and audacious big thinking to fight the drug menace and the indication of the weakness on his part and resolve to deal with the canker? Or doesn’t he realize that by that single act, Akuffo Addo implicated himself and gave the signal that he was in association with drug dealers?

11. What about the three NPP Dzorwulu branch executives who were busted with narcotics at Kotoka in February 2002 when Akufo-Addo was the AG?

12. Is it not interesting that under his tenure as AG, all those three arrested NPP drug queens just vanished into thin air? Their dockets also just magically disappeared like a phantom? Is he terming that as visionary audacious big thinking?

13. What did Nana Addo do about that case to send a strong and clear message to Ghana and the world that his government abhorred drug trafficking and that he was dead set to punish anyone, regardless of proximity to the ruling class, who dares engage in the dangerous narcotic trafficking?

14. Was Akufo-Addo not a prominent member of parliament who was pushing hard for a law (described by Ghanaians as Amoateng Bill) to be passed that will essentially allow Ghanaian drug offenders, languishing in foreign jails to be sent back to Ghana to complete their term? I bet that was visionary and audacious big thinking, right?
15. Does Mr. Addo DankwaAkufo Addo still believe in the Amoateng Bill? Does he think that it will be useful to bring back to Ghana, top NPP drug financiers like Eric Amoateng and Raymond Amankwah and dub that visionary and audacious big thinking?

16. Why does Mr. Addo think that the accusation of drug addiction has never been leveled against any other leader or potential leader of his party like K.A Busia, Victor Owusu, Adu Boahen, J.A. Kufuor or Alan Kyeremateng but only him? Is it just a sheer coincidence?

Akuffo Addo must be told without mincing words that due to his inactions and actions, his ineptitude as well as the lackadaisical and aloofness on his part when it comes to contraband drugs, most Ghanaians think that he is not fit, nay, he is neither qualified to be leading this nation which wants to rid itself of organized crime, violent crime and crime of all shades and forms nor does he qualify to label himself a visionary and audacious big thinker. In fact, Mr. Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo Williams is a ticking time bomb ready to explode and therefore must be jettisoned by all right thinking Ghanaian electorates.

Chris Gyamfi Boateng, MS. Info

Philadelphia, USA