'I don't think he will speak to you' - Manasseh on Gabby's response to his request for an interview with Akufo-Addo

Ace investigative journalist and writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has detailed the extent he went to get a quote from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his new book, ‘The President Ghana Never Got’.

In a JoyNews interview, Manasseh explained that his resolve to get an audience with President Akufo-Addo over the book led to him talking to multiple persons within the corridors of power.

Manasseh stated that he reached out to the cousin of the president, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who disclosed to him that President Akufo-Addo does not take kindly to his critical journalism and therefore it was going to be difficult for him to give a quote or more in his book.

“I initially wanted to speak to President Akufo-Addo when writing this book. I remember speaking to his cousin, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko.

"... people had told me that he [the President] wasn’t happy with the work I was doing. So I asked Gabby if there was a possibility of speaking to him, and he said, ‘I don’t think he will speak to you.’ I asked why, and he said, ‘The President thinks you’ve been mean to him.’

“And I said, ‘But I even spoke to former President Mahama [despite criticising him],’ and Gabby said, ‘People are different and how they process things differs,’” he added.

Following the negative response from Gabby Otchere-Darko, Manasseh took the matter up to the legal counsel of the president, Kow Essuman, who referred him back to Gabby Otchere-Darko as the man who could open the doors to the president for him.

Manasseh says he was thus left with no option but to go back to Gabby Otchere-Darko, who this time around asked him to write an official letter, seeking to interview the president on a book about his reign.

"I spoke to a number of people within his government who confirmed a lot of things, and I had an extensive interview with Gabby for about two hours, where I asked questions about some of the decisions, the family, among other things," he said.

"So I don’t think I missed anything significant from not speaking to the president for this book. I would have loved to, but the circumstances didn’t permit," he stressed.

The book is a 400-page document about Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s reign as President of Ghana.

Investigative journalist and author Manasseh Azure Awuni has shared the challenges he faced in attempting to interview President Akufo-Addo for his forthcoming book, "The President Ghana Never Got."

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