By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Renowned Ghanaian journalist and author, Mr. Manasseh Azure Awuni, says President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would have been touted as the President Ghana never had if he hadn’t ascended into the highest office of the land.
Manasseh speaking about his latest book, titled “The President Ghana Never Had”, which critically examines the Presidency of Mr. Akufo Addo’s since 7, January 2017 expressed disappointment with his (Nana Addo) performance
According to him Mr. Akufo Addo would have earned his respect if he had not assumed office or had passed away before becoming President.
Manasseh believes that President Akufo-Addo had the potential to be a visionary leader who could have transformed Ghana’s fortunes, but unfortunately, that opportunity was missed.
Prior to his election as president of Ghana, many people believed he (Nana Addo) would be different from all the past presidents who have graced the soil, but that assumption, the high believe, and hopes of making Ghana a better country has been shattered. He noted.
“President Akufo Addo’s actions and inactions have failed to match his pre-election promises, leaving Ghanaians disillusioned after seven years of his rule.
If Akufo-Addo had died without becoming President, I personally would have respected him more than he being President. His place in history would have been bigger than he becoming our President. But we would have said look, this is a visionary leader who would have transformed Ghana, unfortunately, we didn’t get him.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we got him, but we did not get him, because the Akufo-Addo some of us expected, was not the president Akufo-Addo, we got when he became a President. So, either way, he’s the President that Ghana never got.” Manasseh reiterated
According to him, he voted for and celebrated Mr. Akufo-Addo’s election, in 2016 but was subsequently disappointed during his tenure as president.
“In 2016, a lot had happened and the question was if Ghanaians were still going ahead and doing this. (retain Mahama). Then what is the point in risking my life, when this is what they want? So, when Akufo-Addo was announced as President, I celebrated it as if it was as if I had won,” Manasseh disclosed.
*Here’s an excerpt of Manasseh’s latest book, “The President Ghana Never Got”
CHAPTER 33 of the book days
“Agyapa and the Fingered Cousins of Akufo-Addo in the OSP Report
After Akufo-Addo took office as Ghana’s President, a propaganda document titled Agyapadeɛ surfaced online and was shared widely on social messaging apps, especially WhatsApp. The document detailed how the President’s extended family intended to take over key sectors of Ghana’s economy.
To do that, they had to take control of civic spaces, including the media. When I started to have troubles with the government and death threats from yet-to-be-identified persons, many people forwarded the document to me. The propaganda piece mentions me as a journalist whose work benefitted the NPP in opposition but someone they should tame in government.
I call it a propaganda document because the things mentioned in it are so outrageously damning that if anyone wanted to “take control” of Ghana in that clandestine manner, they would be extremely daft to document it in such detail and proceed to lay it out with photos as if preparing it for publication. However, the piece’s authors were so detailed in their work that one cannot but applaud their mischievous thoroughness.
If anything lends credence to that document, then it is the actions of the Akufo-Addo government, which seems bent on transferring public wealth—in many sectors, including public lands— into the hands of a few, as the document suggests. The SML scandal, spearheaded by President Akufo- Addo’s cousin, Ken Ofori-Atta, is typical of such clandestine schemes described in the document. But before the SML was exhumed among the many dirty dealings buried in plain sight, the Agyapa Royalties deal reared its monstrous head, which the civil society actors and the opposition NDC confronted with all the
weapons at their disposal.
Agyapadeɛ, the title of the propaganda document, means “inheritance” in the Twi language and “agyapa” means a “good father”. There seems to be something good about fathers who leave inheritance for their children. In the Agyapa deal, however, the father of the nation and his close associates were rather depriving the children of the nation of their inheritance in the gold royalties of Ghana while seeking to enrich a faceless few. If the deal had succeeded, children of Agyapa’s beneficiaries would have received a substantial inheritance from their “good fathers” at the expense of the millions of Ghanaians who own the resources.
The Agyapa Royalties Transaction caught the attention of Ghanaians in August 2020 when the minority in Parliament walked out to protest the approval of five agreements and tax exemptions relating to the monetisation of Ghana’s gold royalties. The Agyapa Royalties Transaction—which the Ministry of Finance said got its name from the Twi word “agyapadeɛ”—had its legal backing from the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act 2018 (978). The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) was set up by the government of Akufo-Addo to invest Ghana’s royalties from its mineral resources. It appeared they had Agyapa in mind, so they passed a law to back it, but the MPs who passed the law did not seem to know the game plan.”
