Captivating speeches that make international news headlines and gain applause from the global community have been a feature of the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
One of such speeches was Akufo-Addo’s address to Ghanaians during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he said, "We knew what to do to bring the economy back to life, but not how to bring people back to life."
2022 was no different, with the president delivering an enchanting speech at the United Nations General Assembly and an interesting interview on the BBC. But this time around, the president also made international headlines for the wrong reasons.
This article looks at four times President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made headlines in the international media in the year.
Away! away! - Akufo-Addo booed on stage at Global Citizen Festival in Accra
One of the unfortunate incidents that happened was the booing of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as he was delivering a speech at the Global Citizen Festival, a global entertainment event, held at the Black Star Square in Accra.
Thousands of patrons were at the venue to witness the Global Citizen Festival, which had a number of local and international artistes performing.
When it was the turn of the president to make his presentation, a section of the crowd began clapping and chanting 'away, away..."
"The whole world is in Ghana today," the president is heard saying in a video sighted by GhanaWeb amid the 'away, away,' chants.
The chants subsided, and the president continued with his remarks from the brightly lit stage.
Akufo-Addo’s interview with the BBC:
The president also caused a stir in his interview with the British broadcaster, the BBC, on its April 4, 2022 edition of its Focus on Africa programme hosted by Peter Okwoche.
There was a banter between President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the BBC’s Peter Okochwe over the health of Ghana’s economy when the president granted an interview to the global broadcaster.
The conversation between the President and Okochwe covered various sectors of the Ghanaian economy and recent occurrences in the socio-political space of the country.
The president was asked about the government’s recently passed Electronic Transfer (E-Levy) law, the tourism sector, and the Black Stars' qualification for the 2022 World Cup, among others.
On the economy, however, the host suggested that Ghana’s economy in its current state was doing terribly with the high cost of living and increasing fuel prices, among others.
But President Akufo-Addo maintained that the situation in Ghana was not as bad and that the current state of the economy was a result of global events in which Ghana was not isolated.