Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the 2016 New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, has been speaking about how patient he is to become the president of Ghana.
He said no amount of intimidation and propaganda from his fierce opponents would deter him from making his dream become a reality saying, “They say those who have the patience to wait in the end will inherit the kingdom.”
Nana Akufo-Addo made the comment when he addressed a heavily-attended forum organized by the NPP United Kingdom branch on Sunday, December 28, 2014 at the Dominion Centre in Wood Green, North London.
He said anytime he travelled outside Ghana the pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) newspapers made distasteful publications about his health but he parried those allegations saying, “In the business of health, these are all in the hands of the Almighty.”
Nana Addo observed, “It appears that there are people who are determined to stop me from coming to London. Every time I am coming to London, the headlines appear in Accra: ‘He’s fallen down ill’, ‘He’s been flown to London’, ‘He’s collapsed and has to go to his doctors’…in the business of health, these are all in the hands of the Almighty, but I want them to know that none of that will stop me from coming to London.”
The NPP standard bearer, who is expected in Ghana today, said he visited London to enable him and his wife Rebecca, attend to one of his daughters who had just given birth.
“Another of my daughters, Gyankomah, has now had her first child. She lives with her partner in Sheffield and I thought it was appropriate if granddad came over to visit them.
“She has an Igbo name, Ndidi, and I also added Bempomaa from the people of Abomosu. Ndidi is for patience. They’ve been very patient for this wonderful gift,” the astute politician and legal gem underscored.
Nana Akufo-Addo touched on a number of national issues, including the economy, education and electoral reforms and also commended Ghanaians in the Diaspora for their continuous support for their families back home. “I don’t need to tell you how welcome the pounds and the dollars and the Euros that you send back home are to the people of Ghana.”
He said, “The vaunted NDC propaganda machinery is going around telling the communities that they have been so skillful in managing the affairs of our country…so much more skillful than the NPP. When you send your pounds, there can be many more cedis they get and they say it is due to the excellent way the NDC is managing the economy. That is the extent to which the cedi has depreciated.”
Nana Akufo-Addo said Ghanaians faced difficult times in 2014 but added, “We should be grateful for the continuing peace and stability of our nation and the freedom the people continue to enjoy.”
He said 2014 was also the year “We were lucky to escape the Ebola virus and we have to commend the government and the public health institutions for the work they have done so far in keeping our nation and our borders free of this virus. It has caused so much havoc in our neighbouring countries.
“Even though we escaped the Ebola, we had a horrible outbreak of cholera.”
Nana Akufo-Addo charged, “We should insist that those managing the country’s affairs are doing so in the interest of the people and not in their personal interest.”
He called for reform and strengthening of public service so that “it becomes an instrument fit for purpose and deliver service to the people and support the private sector to grow the economy and bring up the living standards of the people.”
“I will continue to repeat that I am not interested in politics because of what I’ll gain for myself. I didn’t come into politics to come and make money. I have my own profession and if I want to make money that is where I will put my energy…”
“I want to insist that all those who will come and help me in government, if you think that as a minister or whatever your interest is to make money then my advice to you is, go to the private sector.
“Governance is an area where leadership by example is critical. It is the president downwards who has to set an example which the rest can then follow and have a standard to which they should be held to,” Nana underscored.
He jabbed the NDC government for always rubbishing his ideas but later turning around to adopt same.
“When I put forward an idea and he (President Mahama) pooh-poohs it and comes back to adopt it, his adoption becomes a problem,” he observed.
“We proposed the Northern Development Authority which the NDC adopted and the NDC took it and turned it into SADA,” he noted adding, “SADA has become a joke of an institution and a vehicle for widespread corruption and cronyism and has become a betrayal of the interest of the people of the north.”
He said he feared the free SHS policy would the NDC government is espousing would end up the way SADA has ended up.
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