Nana Akufo-Addo: A Good & Decent Human Being

By Kofi Thompson

Today, I am sharing a comment with the heading "Thanks, but no thanks, Kofi" that someone with the moniker Fire Burn U, left on the features web-page of Ghanaweb.com, after reading an article of mine posted there, entitled "Ghana's Supreme Court Will Not See Fraud Where None Took Place". Please read on:

"Thanks, but no thanks, Kofi

Author: Fire Burn U Posted: 2012-12-18 20:49:52

Kofi, I thank you because even if you're NDC or anything else, you've been honest enough to say publicly that Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo is a good and decent man. And so he is, through and through.

Unfortunately for Ghana, and Africa, we do not believe in good and decent men. We believe in the ones that can give us a cheap 5th grade China phone today instead of free education in perpetuity, for ourselves, our children and grand-children.

We do not believe a man who says I'm not corrupt, never will be, why? because we are all corrupt, and the chief of corruption gets our vote, steals the ones he didn't get to forge ahead.

We are so ignorant that the less ignorant become policy makers who do everything to keep us ignorant so that in the next 4 years, all we expect is a bag of rice and or another cheap 5th grade China phone, or an empty laptop, or a half-piece of cloth.

The chiefs will get Korean 4x4's that they can neither service nor maintain and student activists will get their Hyundai i20's which they then turn round and sell for a fraction of the original price, with the smart ones with a bit of financial savvy buying them off and leasing to taxi-drivers for work and pay for 3 times the market value for a car they didn't pay much for in the beginning. This is how we continue to perpetuate crime and ignorance for the sheer fact of it.

Well done Ghana. Free laptops all the way!!!!"

End of quoted Ghanaweb.com comment from Fire Burn U.

Interesting comment, that. Well, my humble view, is that the tragedy for the New Patriotic Party, is that those whose task it was, after Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo had been mauled by the BBC's Stephen Suker demanding to know - in persistent fashion - exactly what the New Patriotic Party's free secondary education policy proposal would cost to implement, failed to take a hint from that Hardtalk interview drubbing Nana Akufo-Addo received.

Immediately after that interview, they ought to have ensured that realistic costing was done to show Ghanaians what it would actually cost the nation; exactly what would be cost-free to parents; and whether all secondary students (including those admitted prior to the implementation of the policy) would benefit from it, when implemented; and a more sustainable source of funding such as an increase in VAT selected, instead of opting for oil revenues.

If that had been done, and presented to Ghanaians in a more comprehensive manner, perhaps it would have convinced enough of the independent-minded and discerning patriots (as opposed to the millions of My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong myrmidon types) whose crucial swing-votes now decide who wins presidential elections in Ghana, and made a difference to the outcome of the presidential election, for the New Patriotic Party. Such is life, alas.

Finally, I will repeat what I said about Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo: he is a good and decent human being. And I have always admired his courage and fearless nature.

We must never forget that he was in the front-line of those who fought against military dictatorship.

Unfortunately, the New Patriotic Party made a terrible mistake in rejecting him, and choosing J. A. Kufuor instead, as its presidential candidate in the December 2000 election.

And it is such a pity that so many predatory-types surrounded Nana Akufo-Addo when he run for president.

Sadly, it put off so many patriotic and nationalistic individuals from voting for him - because they had not forgotten the unfathomable greed that characterised ex-President J. A. Kufuor's tenure as president.

They it was, whose arrogance and incompetence, lost him the election - not the alleged bribe-giving of his main opponent. Let him ignore all of them and concede defeat for Mother Ghana's sake. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.