I voted for Akufo-Addo in 2016 and 2020 but I’m disappointed – Prof Millar

Former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) Professor David Millar has expressed his displeasure at the leadership style of President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo whom he hitherto had confidence in.

In his assertion, the Nana Addo administration is engulfed in cross-purpose talking which does not auger well for the good of the government.

Even though he voted for President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo in both the 2016 and 2020 elections after a critical assessment of the then-candidate Akufo-Addo, Professor David Millar said he has a strong conviction something has fundamentally gone wrong with the President, leading to the current avoidable lapses and pitfalls under his administration.

“The President says one thing and the next time one of his ministers says something on the contrary or his words don’t reflect in reality and there is no apology for it and life goes on. Personally, I had a lot of confidence in the President and I did vote for him. I’m not an NPP person but I voted for him,” he said in an interview on Bolgatanga-based Dreamz Fm’s State of Our Nation show monitored by MyNewsGh.com.

The Founder and President of the Millar University for Transdisciplinary and Development Studies explained that his reason for voting for the president in 2016 was because of the leadership qualities of the late father of the president which he believes would be exuded and carried forward by his son.

“The first voting was with the understanding that the qualities I know of his father and of UNC. When I was a student I was a member of UNC and that was his father’s party. Those qualities I thought his son could carry forward. Because of relating the father’s qualities with the son, I went voting for him.

"By the end of the first term, it appeared he had a lot of obligations to honour. So he spent his first term trying to satisfy all the constituencies that assisted him to come to power, so I said he could have compromised on so many things. I saw the second term as a dedicated term for himself and to say this is what I’m and this is what I want to do for my country. That’s the reason I voted for him in the second election,” he explained.

According to him, events in government over the recent years however posit that the president is not showing the leadership qualities of firmness, discipline and honesty.

Professor Millar stressed that he is yet to recover from the surprise and disappointment at the turn of events under the watch of the president, adding that “I have not recovered from that strange feeling that something has happened. Maybe the witches in his village have come across him”.

The former Vice-Chancellor was reacting to developments around the government’s decision to embark on a domestic debt restructuring program which will see individual bondholders voluntarily subscribe to the program or risk losing their investments.

As an individual bondholder himself, Professor Millar said the move is a bad one and states his disapproval of it.

He opined that government must consider cutting down expenditure by reducing the size of government and rationalizing some policies and programs to ease the current financial stress it is grappling with.