Ghana needs Akufo-Addo – Cwesi Oteng

Fresh from his endorsement of Nana Akufo-Addo for the 2016 presidential elections, outspoken gospel musician Cwesi Oteng has gone a step further to explain his decision.

The God Dey Bless Me singer had on September 10, 2016 announced to the world via his Twitter handle his support for the three-time presidential aspirant of the opposition New Patriotic Party. He tweeted: “I would like to show my support for @NAkufoAddo and to fully endorse him to be our next POGH. I believe Ghana needs a breath of fresh air.”

Appearing on Gospel 360 on Accra100.5FM on Sunday, September 18 – a week after the public endorsement – Cwesi Oteng, who maintained he was no member of any political party, reiterated his backing of Nana Akufo-Addo saying he had made the decision as a “citizen” and a “millennial” after his assessment of the Better Ghana agenda promised by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the two terms it has been in power since the NPP left office.

“I am a citizen of Ghana; I am not a politician. Ghana was promised a Better Ghana. As a Ghanaian citizen, I’ve studied the system and I’ve said that: ‘OK, if this is the Better Ghana, eight years is enough; I’m voting for the NPP,” he told host Andy Favoured on the Sunday afternoon show.

Asked why he had settled on the twice-failed presidential aspirant when there were several opposition candidates to pick from, Cwesi Oteng, certain Nana Akufo-Addo was best placed to challenge John Mahama for the presidency, said: “I do not want to waste [my] vote. It is good to support others but I do not want to waste [my] vote, so Nana is going [to be my choice].”

Further, he noted that though Mr Akufo-Addo had never led Ghana, the country’s history could not be written without reference to his relentless efforts as a “forerunner” to restore it to democratic governance during the years of military rule.

He explained: “Nana has not been president of Ghana yet, but write the history of Ghana. If you can remove him from [it], it’s not correct history, because Ghana used to be a military-ruled country before we came [under] constitutional rule. I do not remember any of the current faces fighting for Ghana to come out of military rule.

“My point is that if a person who without political authority as president of the state has been able to etch himself into the history books of our country, what will this person do if he is the president of the state?”