Why Nana Akuffo-Addo Cannot And Must Not Be The President Of Ghana
By Alex David Ford
A President epitomizes a country’s hopes and aspirations. A national leader is expected to be hardworking, exemplary, trustworthy, visionary and morally upright. To put it in simpler terms, honesty, integrity, self-discipline, experience, and moral fortitude are part of the many essential hallmarks needed for any national leadership position. I am going to passionately and thoroughly examine William Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo who is now called Nana Akuffo-Addo and explain why I feel he is unfit to occupy the highest office of our country.
Nana Akuffo-Addo as he is now called comes from a very good and noble family. A lot of credit must be given to his late father who did all he could, to lay a good foundation for him by instilling in him qualities and values that will enable him grow up to live a successful life. Two factors however impeded his late father’s efforts. In the first place, we as human beings make choices which are not imposed on us by our parents. Secondly, environmental factors also greatly shape and influence our character and behavior. The “Nima environment” which Nana was raised had a tremendous influence on him. This however, should not be a strong excuse because the “Ayawaso constituencies” which Nana Akuffo-Addo and many of us grew up in, even though had for a long time been known as a profoundly drug-infested area, produced many hardworking, decent and morally-upright people. Besides, it is not uncommon for people to do stupid things in their teens or youthful days only to part ways with such youthful indiscretions as they mature in age.
One of the most disturbing and distasteful character traits that Nana Akuffo-Addo has consistently displayed from his youthful days up to the present is his promiscuous nature; what I will term as a complete lack of self-discipline. Early in life as a student in the University of Ghana, Nana surprised his family by giving birth with another female student of the university called Virgina Hesse whose parents lived in Accra at the time. Nana never learnt any lesson from this incident; rather it was in London that Nana Akuffo-Addo displayed how promiscuous he could be. He fathered his next two daughters with a hard-working Nigerian lady called Remi. But even though Nana Akuffo-Addo had the resources to take care of the two kids, he completely abdicated his fatherly responsibilities towards these two unfortunate children. The struggling lady was compelled to apply and place the kids on British Welfare. Nana continued his sexual escapades in yet another London suburb where he refused paternity of two kids with two different women. However as the kids grew up, their close resemblance to Nana Akuffo-Addo and their diminutive stature exposed him as their father. Nana Akuffo-Addo next child also a girl, was with the late lawyer Eleanor popularly known as “Obaa” .
So as a matter of fact, Nana Akuffo-Addo “officially” has four biological children with three different women all of which were outside the bond of marriage. There is however a fifth child called Valerie Hutton-Mills which Nana Akuffo-Addo is also claiming to be his. The truth is that Valerie is the result of a an affair between Mrs. Rebecca Akuffo-Addo and the husband of her best friend called Chappie Hutton-Mills of blessed memory. As a matter of fact, Nana Akufo-Addo and his present wife Rebecca do not have any biological children between them. I cannot understand why as a person aspiring to be the president of the country, Nana Akuffo-Addo has refused to part company with his promiscuous ways. In recent times as a minister of state Nana was flirting with young female lawyer living in the Nyaniba estates. He was at the same time visiting another lady at the South Odorkor Estates. He enrolled this lady at the Institute of Journalism and after successfully completing the course, helped her get a job at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. That lady’s brother called Kwame who used to run errands for Nana Akuffo-Addo has also been helped to Britain.
Nana’ recent affair with the wife of a prominent member of his party resulting in the break-up of their marriage is another testimony of how lack of good judgment and complete absence of self-discipline makes Nana Akuffo-Addo an unacceptable candidate for the presidency of our country. I am referring to the “Ursula Owusu” affair. The total lack of discretion and the complete absence of discipline couple with abundant display of sexual promiscuity which Nana Akuffo-Addo has consistently displayed as his hallmark are unfortunately not good credentials for a presidential candidate. All Ghanaians who want further proof of how shamelessly perverting, nauseating, disgusting and irresponsible Nana Akuffo-Addo could be, should seek permission from “Urban Republic” to access this web page; (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9NE9Wp_PuQ).
As if his sexual promiscuity is not enough to expose him as a bad candidate for the highest office of our land, he has also consistently displayed another very disturbing and dangerous character trait; his drug use. As I have already stated, the geographical area which Nana and many of us were raised should not be an excuse to turn our bodies into havens for narcotics cocktails. When early in life as a student of the University of Strasbourg in France, Nana Akuffo-Addo was sacked for using drugs, it became apparent that Nana has fallen “casualty” to his environment. The prudent thing for Akuff-Addo was to have learnt from that unfortunate incident. But not until the recent public outcry against his drug habit, Nana was still “hooked on” drugs. The fact is that Nana Akuffo-Addo has used drugs for so long a time that it has become an integral part of his body metabolism. This is an “open secret”. Many of his party members, acquaintances and buddies are aware of this fact. Nana will need a very long and thorough clean-up at a good rehabilitation facility to rid his system of narcotics after many decades of consistent usage.
More dangerous and disheartening as a presidential candidate is Nana Akuffo-Addo’s association and sympathy for drug barons and kingpins. I am not talking about the small drug peddlers that Nana used to “stick” around with in his Nima neighborhood, I am referring to “Drug Barons” who can arrange and ship with ease tens and thousands of narcotics from one country to another without being detected. I am also referring to Drug kingpins who can elude the almighty Interpol because they have “connections” Indeed when the New Patriotic Party took over as the ruling government in our country, Ghana simultaneously took over from Guinea Bissau and Nigeria as Africa’s number one “narco State” The country became haven for drug lords. The part Nana Akuffo-Addo played in giving our country such a dubious reputation and tag cannot be understated. He gave the drug barons the signals when as the attorney General, he issued instructions for the discontinuation of persecution of drug cases brought against certain individuals by the previous government, prominent among which was Frank Benneh. He also made sure that the five “Dzorwulu” executive members of his party who were caught trying to smuggle narcotics outside the country were never prosecuted. Their court docket also “vanished”
As if that was not enough, Nana Akuffo-Addo sent another signal to the drug barons by indicating that he was ready to do business with them by “de-confiscating” all assets of various drug barons who had been properly convicted by a our courts. Examples of such bad signals and further indications of Nana sympathies for drug barons are as follows; 1) George Adu Bonsu popularly known as “Benjilo” was convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for dealing in narcotic drugs in 1997. His drug-funded property in Accra was subsequently confiscated as the laws demanded. Nana Akuffo-Addo made sure that the verdict was reversed and he supervised the return of the seized properties to him 2) Nana Akuffo-Addo, as Attorney General, also supervised the de-confiscation of frozen assets of Raymond Amankwah, a reputed global Cocaine Baron who incidentally is his brother-in-law.
As if all these open favours and sympathies for drug barons were not enough, Nana further gained notoriety when he spear-headed a bill in parliament known as the “Amoateng Bill” that would have essentially allowed Ghanaian drug offenders, languishing in foreign jails to be sent back to Ghana to complete their terms. Indeed Nana Akuffo-Addo’s tenure as Attorney-General portrayed him as a man with unalloyed loyalty and sympathies for big-time drug barons. There is an explanation for that.
In the 2008campaign, one of the prominent members of Nana Akuffo-Addo’s team and financier was Raymond Amankwa alias Chanda Keita who happens to be Nana’s brother-in-law. Raymond is a drug baron with global marketing outlets and channels. In 1990, Interpol, on behalf of the judicial authorities in France issued a warrant for Raymond’s arrest for violating that country’s legislation on drugs acquisition, possession and importation. While the notorious Amankwa managed to elude arrest by police and custom officials, other accomplices including Mariame Keita (Amankwah’s wife) Andre N’Guessan, (an Ivorian) and Charles Oppong (Ghanaian) were arrested. Instead of refraining from activities that would further aggravate his case, Raymond Amankwa in his hide-out, still directed “Drug Operations”. It therefore came as no surprise when it was revealed that he was again the brain behind a crack cocaine network whose bust led to the discovery of 5.5 kilogrammes of cocaine valued at £1 million. This compelled the Southwark Crown Court in the United Kingdom to therefore issue another bench warrant for his arrest in 1995.
Raymond could not therefore legally enter Ghana during the NDC era because the government at that time had indicated its willingness to co-operate with Interpol by arresting and handing him over for prosecution. However after the NDC was defeated and NPP came to power, Amankwa surfaced in the country and appeared sometimes in public with Nana Akuffo-Addo who as I have already stated, is his brother-in-law. Instead of apprehending the fugitive Amankwa and handing him over to Interpol, indications are that, Nana in a very criminal manner rather decided to help him.
As the country’s Foreign Minister, one of Nana Akuffo-Addo’s many responsibilities was the safe-guarding of our country’s Diplomatic passports. It therefore came as a surprise when five of the country’s diplomatic passports which were supposed to have been under “lock and key” mysteriously vanished. It is interesting to note that three of the supposed “missing diplomatic passports” were traced to Nana Akuffo-Addo’s buddies one of which was the notorious drug Baron Raymond Kwame Amakwa. There have been many dubious attempts to exonerate Nana Akuffo-Addo from this criminal bahaviour, but the fact still remains that these so-called “missing diplomatic passports” had been officially issued and signed. Another fact is that, diplomatic passport are issued upon the authorization of the Foreign Minister. Nana Akuffo-Addo was our Foreign Minister at the time. If he is claiming to have nothing to do with this dirty and criminal affair, he must tell Ghanaians who authorized the issue of those passports. He must also tell Ghanaians how these passports got to no other Ghanaians but his close associates. If Nana cannot be trusted with the custody and care of our country’s passports, how can Ghanaians trust him with the country’s security, fortune and aspirations?
The very sad thing about the supposed “missing diplomatic passports” drama was that, genuine Ghanaian government officials including a few Ministers of state in the Kuffour’s government who were on legal assignments on behalf of the people of Ghana were on a number of occasions, subjected to very embarrassing and humiliating strip-searches at a number of international airports a few of which are located in Africa. This is the dangerous and dubious character who wants to lead our country. Apart from all these nauseating and dubious character traits that Nana Akuffo-Ado had consistently exhibited, his often recourse to inflame ethnic passions makes him one of the most dangerous and ethnocentric political figures in Africa today. I hope all-well-meaning NPP activists had not soon forgotten how he blackmailed their party into handing over to him the “flag bearership” when he threatened to pull the Akyem faction out of the NPP if he was not elected as the party’s candidate. Other pronouncements like “Yen Akanfuor” and his public support for Kennedy Agyepong after Ken had called for the total extermination of all Ewes and Ga ethnic groups in the country in addition to his infamous “All die be die” pronouncements portray him not only as a deep-seated tribal bigot, but also a very selfish political figure who is prepare to use any means including violence to achieve his political goals.
It is mind boggling why the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which has men and characters within its ranks who had neither displayed such profound reckless behaviour nor had shown any propensity for such foolhardiness should choose Nana Akuffo-Addo as a leader. Indeed Nana’s complete lack of discretion, his promiscuous nature, his uncontrolled craving for narcotics in addition to his close connections to drug cartels makes him a highly questionable and a discredited candidate for the high office of the presidency of our country.
Nana’s drug use and connections are well known to the intelligences services of Gt. Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. Apart from the real possibility of our country sliding once again into the topmost “narco state” position in Africa under Akuff-Addo’s presidency, it can also easily be blackmailed since as I have said, all the intelligence services in the major European countries and the United States are aware of Nana’s drug use and connections to drug barons. The scenario of Ghana electing a drug junkie as their leader seems like a big joke but this is nevertheless very alarming. Ghana is at the threshold of catastrophe and a national disaster because, there is a remote possibility of electing one of the most reckless, promiscuous, irresponsible and dubious political figures in the country’s history as its leader.
