Akufo-Addo’s Kwaku Ananse way

Kwaku Ananse is an interesting and enthralling character with an extremely crafty and cunning disposition. He believes he is wiser than any other creature, and therefore, all good things must be possessed by him. He is witty but allergic to criticism or any form of rebuke. In African folklore, Kwaku Ananse is known for his tricks and shape-shifting tendencies.

In a nutshell, he believes he is the embodiment of wisdom and can therefore not be criticised, corrected, or advised. However, he believed he had the right to criticise every Tom Dick and Harry in the village.

Kwaku Ananse spent years collecting all the wisdom of the world in a wooden

pot. As he tried to hide the pot inside a tree, he could not find a way to place it high up in its branches. His little son Ntikumah showed him the way, Kwaku

Ananse was so embarrassed that he started throwing tantrums and threw the

pot down onto the ground, it burst, and the wisdom seeped away.

These are the exact physiognomies of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. In the last eight years of his reign as president of Ghana, Addo has personified all the traits of Kwaku Ananse. The president is so allergic to advice and criticism. He is of the opinion that he is wiser than anyone in this country, and as a result, some of the very people he appointed have become his archenemies.

President Akufo-Addo fell out with some of his key allies, such as Boakye

Agyarko, who he appointed as minister in charge of the energy sector, Martin

Amidu, who was his Special prosecutor, all because, in his grandiose mind, he

believes he was wiser than them and they dare not tell him what they believe

is the truth, but should rather be subservient to his deviant and aberrant ways

of doing things.

Even in opposition, he fell out with the likes of Paul Afoko, Kwabena Agyapong,

Sammy Crabbe, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, and Charles Wireku Brobbey. When the then Auditor General of the Republic, Daniel Yao Domelovo, investigated and indicted the president’s closest associate, Nana Yaw Osafo Maafo, for illegally paying $1 million to Kroll and Associates for no work done, he was shamelessly sacked by the president just to protect his confederate, with the flippant excuse that he had attained his retirement age.

The president then hurriedly appointed the deputy auditor general while Domelovo was in court challenging the unjustifiable dismissal, only for the newly appointed auditor general to clear Nana Yaw Osafo Maafo of any wrongdoing. Clearly, Kwaku Ananse has had his way. When the Supreme Court ruled that the dismissal of Domelovo was unlawful, the president did not have the humility to at least apologise to Domelovo for the injustice. Poignantly and ironically,

President Akufo-Addo remained the only president in the Fourth Republic to

ascent to the presidency on the mantra of independent judiciary and rule of law

and human rights.

This is the exact attribute of Kwaku Ananse; he enjoys being the puppet master, where everyone else must be subservient to his authority and machinations. The fact that the president could not sustain his working relationship with men of integrity like Martin Amidu, Daniel Domelovo, Boakye Agyarko, Professor Frimpong Boateng, and Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe says a lot about his ego and unquenchable appetite to always have the last word, whether he is right or wrong.

The greatest mistake we have made in this country is trusting candidate Akufo-Addo when he outwitted us with his artificial humility with his “try me” rendition, which Vice President Dr. Bawumia is emulating in order to deceive us once again.

Folks, Kwaku Ananse is trying to pull off one of his last trickeries by deceiving us to tortuously give him another term through his vice president.