President Akufo-Addo: Our modern day Kwaku Ananse

Kwaku Ananse is an interesting and enthralling character with an exceedingly 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 grumpy and allergic to criticism. In African folklore, Kwaku Ananse is known for his tricks and shape-shifting tendencies. In a nutshell, he believes he is good and every other person is bad.

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 bursts and the wisdom seeps 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, he has personified all the traits of Kwaku Ananse.

In a previous article titled “Akufo-Addo’s Kwaku Ananse ways”, I explained how President Akufo-Addo thinks he is an embodiment of wisdom and can therefore not be criticised, corrected, or advised, while believing he has the right to criticise every Tom Dick and Harry.

In this article, I intend to show the other cocky side of President Akufo-Addo and his double standards in some notable events.

The AMERI Power Plant:

In December 2015, then-candidate Akufo-Addo berated H.E. John Dramani Mahama for purchasing the AMERI plant to solve the generational power challenges that had accumulated and exploded into crises between 2013 and 2015. Nana Akufo-Addo labelled the deal as “a complete waste of the country’s resources.”

Despite all the explanations provided by the NDC government, Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP protagonists, in their quest for power, went on destruction curvature, describing the deal as fraudulent and a conduit to steal from the national coffers.

After winning the 2016 general elections, President Akufo-Addo, who described the AMERI deal as fraudulent and a waste of national resources, tried to renegotiate the deal by extending the original outsourcing agreement by 15 years. The new deal would see Ghana and a new company, Mytilineous, pay off AMERI so Mytilineous will take over management of the plant for some 15 years, what many critics have described as a stab in the back of Ghanaians. The vigilance of NDC Members of Parliament exposed this rot to the president. In a face-saving mission, he looked for a scapegoat and sacrificed his energy minister, Hon. Boakye Agyarko, for “misleading” him. Kwaku Ananse never makes mistakes; others do.

Recently, the president has relocated the AMERI plant to the Ashanti Region at a cost of $35 million, renamed it the KT1 Thermal plant without telling Ghanaians that it was the same AMERI plant he spoke against. He praised himself for relocating the plant to Kumasi, yet accused those who initiated and secured the plant for Ghana on a build, operate, and take (BOT) agreement.

Energy Sector Levy Act:

The Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA), 2015 (Act 899) was introduced and promulgated in 2015 to address the huge debt burden and operational challenges facing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector, support power generation and power supply sustainability, subsidize premix, and stabilize petroleum. It was at the peak of the 2013–2015 power crisis when H.E. John Mahama implemented the ESLA in 2015 as a measure to stabilize Ghana's energy sector and mitigate the impact of the crisis. It was supposed to be scrapped in 2020 after it served its purpose of addressing the energy debt.

Candidate Akufo-Addo described it as a nuisance tax that was going to burden Ghanaians. He promised to scrap it immediately if voted for as president. However, after winning the 2016 elections, president Akufo-Addo not only maintained ESLA, he extended it to 2035 and collateralized it for a loan.

In the midst of the recent energy crises, former president John Mahama has disclosed that he advised President Akufo-Addo not to tamper with ESLA, as it could potentially reignite dumsor, but he didn’t listen, and here we are facing avoidable energy crises “dumsor” despite the available power plants. The very things he accused his opponents of are the very things he is proud of once they get into his hands.

President Akufo-Addo is desperately trying to extend his time in office by imposing his puppet, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on us.

We should not allow ourselves to be deceived again by the modern-day Kwaku Ananse and his tricks.