President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
• President Akufo-Addo has responded to some issues that dominated the airwaves in recent weeks
• The President downplayed suggestions of culture silence in the country
He also defended his press freedom records
From the tone and wording of the speech, it clear that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo needed a platform to vent and the University of Cape Coast gave him the right platform to get some things off his chest.
The president was facing some form of crisis that had a bearing on not just on his presidency but his reputation as well. His much-touted press freedom credentials built around his role in the repeal of the criminal libel was in danger triggered by specific incidents.
The unsolved murder of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale, the observation by senior citizen Sir Sam Jonah of a certain culture of silence and the arrest and treatment of Caleb Kudah by operatives of the National Security had put his reputation at risk and the president presumably had been looking for an opportunity to clear publicly comment and assert himself as a number one defender of press freedom and a person opened to divergent views.
So when the opportunity presented itself, President Akufo-Addo took it and served his critics definitive responses.
Sam Jonah though his name was not mentioned took his fair share of the rebuttal with President Akufo-Addo rubbishing his claim about a seeming return of the culture of silence.
“Since becoming president, there is nothing I have seen or experienced in the office that will make me change my long-held views on the importance of fundamental human rights.
"I have worked with civil society organisations and used their platforms to engage in famous arguments, healthy debates and I am not averse to the occasional controversy that is a necessary part of public life,” Akufo-Addo said.
“I have said so and I will say it again that I will much rather that we had a reckless press than a sparing one. I dare say that the atmosphere in our country is one of spirited conversation and debate among politicians, the business community, civil society organisations, and ordinary citizens through print, radio, television or in particular, social media, whether they are home or abroad. Indeed, I dare say that the means to get your voice heard has never been so democratised as now and long may it last.”
President Akufo-Addo also shot down reports of insecurity in the country, explaining that Ghanaians are more safe under him.
“There has also been talk about the state of insecurity prevailing in the country following reports by some sections of the media. A cursory glance at the statistics from the Police Service shows that on the contrary, crime cases, at least, for the first quarter of 2021 are coming down as compared to the same quarter in 2020.
“For example, there was a nationwide reduction in robbery case from five hundred and twenty-five (525) during the period under review in 2020 to four hundred and ninety-five (495) in 2021 and still declining,” Akufo-Addo said when he addressed a special congregation at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) on 29 May 2021, where a Doctorate Degree (Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership) was conferred on him.
The National Health Insurance Scheme is to former President Kufuor what Free Senior High School is to President Akufo-Addo.
Of all the achievements chalked under his five year reign so far, the Free SHS program stands out and its rightly so mentioned by the government and its supporters on any given platform. So when a media house embarks on a campaign which is seen as an attempt to undermine their much-cherished program, the president joined his appointees and party supporters to mount a defence.
“A radio station is currently running a campaign against free SHS. During the last elections, I got the clear impression [that] free SHS has been endorsed by all political parties and all we needed to do was to keep improving it.
“Would a spirited defense of the free SHS policy constitute an attack on press freedom? I wonder. It cannot be that everyone has a right of reply except members of the government and officialdom. Nor can it be that the challenging an opinion expressed by a journalist constitutes an attack on press freedom.”
So Free SHS tackled, security issues dealt with and perceptions of Culture of Silence dismissed, what other major current issue did President Akufo-Addo not touch on?
The answer to this is a recent revelation by North Tongu MP, Okudzeto Ablakwa that he, President Akufo-Addo, travelled to France and South Africa on a $15,000-per-hour aircraft.
“Per Flightradar24, the G-KELT aircraft left Accra with the President to Paris on the 16th of May — a 6 and half hour duration. Airlifted the President from Paris to Johannesburg for 11 hours on the 23rd of May.
“Then Johannesburg to Accra on May 25, was a five and half hour flight. This gives us accumulated flight travel of 23 hours, so at £15,000 an hour, it thus cost us a colossal £345,000. At the current exchange, that is a staggering ¢2,828,432.80.”
According to him, “President Akufo-Addo [who] has been a leading voice for debt forgiveness in the international arena has been imposing additional regressive taxes back home, with the justification that the economy isn’t in a good shape.”
President Akufo-Addo’s silence on the topic despite his strong-worded responses on the other pertinent issues may be strange but could also be due to the fact that Ablakwa has filed a question in Parliament for the Defense Minister, Dominic Nitiwul to answer.
But critics will posit that for an issue that directly hits at the person and reputation of President Akufo-Addo, he could have used the platform he used to attack the media house and Sam Jonah to set the records straight.
