FLASHBACK: Akufo-Addo often ‘misled’ by his advisors – Bernard Mornah

Former PNC Chairman, Bernard Mornah, in November 2020, accused handlers of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of often misleading him.

Mr. Mornah who was speaking on government's efforts to organize a referendum on the election of MMDCEs on party lines said the president is most times subjected to ridicule due to his advisors misleading him on issues.

Read the full article as first published by starrfmonline.com below:

PNC Chairman, Bernard Mornah

PNC Chairman Bernard Mornah has accused advisors of President Akufo-Addo of misleading their boss in most cases.

According to him, the confusion surrounding the upcoming December 17 referendum, on political party involvement in local level polls, which was triggered by the government is yet another indication that the President’s advisors are not helping.

Speaking on Shaping the Nation show on Starr FM Monday, Mr Monah said members of the ruling party are compelled to pursue the stance of the President in the referendum in order to fend off embarrassment from him.

“They were misled and they did not do their homework well and therefore they run with an idea that is not likely to be acceptable or meet the expectation that they themselves thought they could meet and that is why you are getting that level of exasperation from the local government minister in parliament when you saw that she literally vented anger at the NDC in parliament for saying that ‘we have changed our position’ or that ‘we have done a critical assessment of what we initially thought we could support and realized we can’t support it’.

“So question you ask is who are those advising Mr. President so that at most of the time he is misled and is carried by the people who advise him to put himself in such a situation to compel members of his party to now be making public pronouncement that we cannot allow you to endure such a ridicule so cancel the entire process and don’t bring it back,” he said.

The Executive Director for the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) Dr Emmanuel Akwetey who has campaigned vigorously for a ‘yes vote’ has joined calls for the suspension of the referendum.

According to him, the controversies surrounding the impending exercise must be addressed before it is held.

“… It could be rescheduling with time specified, but also clearly the machinery for educating people objectively, not the bias thing like we reduce it to in elections. For constitutional amendment it is not a party election, you need consensus and there is a lot of work to be done to get this consensus.

“Not everyone is saying cancel it, and those who are saying cancel it, they must rethink,” he said.

Several groups have either called for the postponement of the exercise or outright cancellation.

On Monday, the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) backed calls for postponement of the Referendum.