Dissecting the Akufo-Addo Legacy

A satire by Femi Akomolafe - bidding farewell to a very underwhelming leader!

Jan 06, 2025

Although the official results had not been announced, everyone knew that Alufo-Addo's eight-year nightmare had been put to bed.

Tired of hanging around in my tiny room with the radio clutched to my ears, I strolled to my favorite watering hole, where I ordered a criminally cold Bubra and my plate of Nigerian Catfish pepper soup (yes, they sell them in Ghana). I parked myself at a corner where I had noticed a morose-looking fella. His dark Eastern Region face was a map of dejection.

In the background, a radio blares an old highlife song, interspersed with announcements and analyses of the Ghana 2024 election results.

Salaam Aleikum, I said and sat beside him

He looked at me wearily. I studied his face closely and saw he was not a happy man. He looked at me and muttered a barely audible Good evening. Every figure announced on the radio appears to punch a hole in his guts.

He studied my face, shook his head, and lamented: Ghanaians are wicked; Akufo-Addo tried his best.

His outburst caused me to arrest the journey of my beer to my mouth. Are you for real? I queried.

What do you mean if I am for real, ehn? Akufo-Addo is a great leader.

I took a long look at him, and he appeared sober. You cannot be serious. How dare you tell me that a man who turned campaign promises into some of Ghana’s finest fiction is trying his best? Forget about Ayi Kwei Armah - your man wrote a masterpiece of broken dreams.

I know that Ghanaians are the unkindest people on earth. Today, we condemn a man who introduced Free SHS. That’s not fiction! Akufo-Addo gave education to the masses!

Without a doubt, the free SSH was a laudable policy. In implementing it, though, your man did it the wrongest way possible. While such policies must be anchored on solid theoretical and economic foundations, your man turned it into a mere vote-winning populist thing, hence the disaster it became. It is virtually broken. Classrooms have been turned into overcrowded zoos with students sharing desks, sitting on windowsills, and teachers moonlighting as counselors for overwhelmed parents. Don’t let us talk about the feeding with over-inflated contracts awarded to cronies.

At least he tried. It’s better than nothing. What did your NDC do when it was in power?

Oops, What gave you the impression that I am an NDC supporter? Your man did not campaign on the slogan of “Better than nothing,” he sold Ghanaians the dummy that he had answered to all their problem. Today, you tell me that his abysmal performance is better than nothing. What about “One District, One Factory”? Is that also a better-than-nothing thing? Can you show me a single district with a fully functioning factory, not those on paper or in fanciful PowerPoint presentations?

Ghanaians are too much in a hurry; the factories are coming. Economic Development takes time...

I guffawed. Time? Are you for real? Akufo-Addo had eight years. Babies born when he took office now know how to recite his unfulfilled promises.

Akufo-Addo created jobs! Ghanaians got employed. Do you also contest that, Mr. Cynical?

Insults and name-calling will get you everywhere. Of course, your man created jobs for his party footworkers if by jobs you mean those “jobs” of handing out T-shirts during campaign season. Or do you mean the armies of people his economic mismanagement throws on the streets to hawk bric-a-brac in the hot sun? Or the galamsey workers destroying our rivers while his government pretended to crack down on illegal mining? Sure, lots of people were “employed.” Employed to pollute our rivers and ruin our environment.

You hate the man, but your sweeping condemnation is grossly unfair. Has any other president fought corruption like Akufo-Addo?

I almost choked on my drink. Akufo-Addo fought corruption! In which universe did you exist in the past eight years? Your man didn’t even throw a punch against corruption, much less to fight it. Under his watch, his party bigwigs, families, friends, and cronies raised corruption to the level of praxis. They looted the republic like a conquered territory whose wealth must be dispatched with haste.

It is most unfair to blame the president personally for the failure. Would you deny that he set up the systems to tackle corruption?

You are good at proferring excuses for a man who has become a yardstick for monumental failure. Yes, he set up the Office of the Special Prosecutor! Please, how’s that working out? Apart from creating a sham office and spending state money on cronies who merely fill office spaces, how has your man fought corruption? How many convictions has the OSP secured? How many ill-gotten assets have been confiscated? Where were you when the first appointee quit in frustration, complaining of interference? The one that replaced him is quieter than a church mouse at dawn. Akufo-Addo didn’t fight corruption; he was its most significant enabler.

You’re being dramatic. Akufo-Addo built more infrastructures, Roads, hospitals, and interchanges than any other president in our history.

Why do you choose to parrot easy-to-debunk lies? Don’t we all live in Ghana, or do we not have eyes and ears? The Roads, the Hospitals, and Interchanges exist only in the dreams and the imaginations of party zealots like you. Where, apart from artist impressions or glossy brochures, do you find Akufo-Addo’s touted infrastructures? The few completed are overpriced and underwhelming for a man who promised heaven on earth for Ghanaians.

How about the Tema Motorway Interchange?

What about it? The project has been under construction like forever and a half. I will not be surprised if your man decides to do what he does best - cut another ribbon and speechify himself into a stupor before he leaves office. Akufo-Addo’s infrastructure plans were like his other promises: plenty of fanciful talk, little action.

Do you deny that he inherited a broken economy? What could he do?

Oh, please! Now, you’re simply flapping around. Every president inherits a “broken economy.” But Akufo-Addo didn’t fix it - he broke it further. He promised to move us beyond aid but ended up with his hands out, begging the IMF like an experienced panhandler begging for loose change.

You are not being charitable. What do you expect the man to do when the whole world was devastated by COVID-19 and the Ukraine-Russia war?

Wow. Like a faithful supporter, you are one excuse galore. The whole world faced COVID-19, and many countries handled it well. Your man, Akufo-Addo, handled it like a man trying to extinguish a fire with petrol. The economy was already gasping for air before the pandemic hit. He and his family and cronies saw COVID-19 as another avenue to scam the people of Ghana, and they took advantage of it. The whole thing was embroiled in serious corruption.

Please learn to give credit where it is due; Akufo-Addo did his best under the circumstances.

His best? Tell that to his mindless and irrational party supporters who are too blind and deaf to think beyond their stomachs! I don't know where you have been hiding because, towards the end of his tenure, even some of his most passionate supporters were fed up. Did you not see the poll figures, and how many diehard NPP people refused to vote? Were the NPP protesters that we saw marching chanting hymns of praises of your man? No, they were protesting against his disastrous nepotism, tribal jingoism, corruption, economic mismanagement, bloated egotistical tendencies, and sheer stupid stubbornness that make your man consider himself a giant when he is a Lilliputian.

Those protesting didn’t understand his vision. Did the Bible not tell us in Luke 4:24 that Prophets are not accepted in their own society? In a few decades, Ghanaians will be erecting statues of Akufo-Addo and worshipping him.

Vision? If you meant the vision of a man squinting into the sun without sunglasses, your man probably has it. I doubt if Akufo-Addo even knows the meaning of the word. Did you forget that his MPs rebelled in Parliament, fighting his misguided policies like enemies on a battlefield? When your team loses faith, what does that say about your leadership?

You can exaggerate things. At least he built the National Cathedral.

Built? At where? Is the giant hole in the middle of a prime area of Accra something to celebrate? Your man illegally used taxpayers’ money without their consent to erect a cathedral and failed to keep his promise to his own God. Meanwhile, our hospitals lack beds, and basic schools don’t have roofs. The cathedral's promise to unite the nation ended up tearing us further. Even some of the pastors who were drafted resigned in disgust.

At least he tried to fulfill the wish that God revealed to him.

Hmmm. It felt more like it was for Akufo-Addo’s bloated ego. The question you should ask yourself is why would any god choose to reveal his wants to a man like Akufo-Addo? And when did God tell anyone that, with all the churches that dotted every corner of Southern Ghana, he still needs a Cathedral? A thinking and compassionate god would probably have first asked for clean water and functioning schools. Priorities, my friend. Priorities.

Try to give the man some slack. The man faced challenges—both internal and external. No leader has it easy. Akufo-Addo was buffered left and right by mighty arrays of forces.

Oops. Didn’t your man tell Ghanaians that he came prepared? Did he not know about external and external forces buffeting leaders before he took to the campaign pulpits to condemn Mahama as incompetent? Did he not know about all those things before he made all those promises and told Ghanaians that he had the men and the women to help him transform Ghana? What did Akufo-Addo transform apart from his bank account and those of his family? You have even die-hard NPP supporters grumbling loudly because no one has seen Ghana in this abysmal state.

That’s politics. Grumbling is part of life. You can’t please everyone.

You are insufferable. Nothing that I say penetrates the thick wall of your blind partisanship. Akufo-Addo couldn’t even please his ministers! By the end, many of them were reported to be scheming for their political futures while the ship of state sank. Your man was like a captain who lost the crew’s trust. Ghana under him was rudderless and pilotless. The man didn’t even attempt to be concerned about the welfare of Ghanaians. He did not care enough even to be apathetic.

Akufo-Addo is human, and humans make mistakes.

What a pedestrian defense! It is true that we all make mistakes, but most humans don’t make a career out of them. Akufo-Addo promised to fight tribalism and ended up practicing it. His appointments looked like a family reunion: brothers, cousins, and in-laws - all enjoying the spoils of power. Ghanaians called it “nepotism on steroids.”

You’re just bitter.

Bitter? No, I’m entertained by your man’s antics. His propensity to tell stupid, brazen lies is the stuff of Ghanawood. His presidency is like a dark comedy - tragic for Ghana but hilarious for those observing him.

You cannot deny that he did his best.

Says who? If that were his best, I, like most Ghanaians, would hate to see his worst. Now tell me, as someone who appears to be privy to his inner circle, what’s next for your dear Akufo-Addo? Retirement? Memoir-writing? Or can we expect your man to spend his golden years explaining his “vision” to bewildered historians?

You are not even funny. Of course, he’ll remain an elder statesman.

Really! An elder statesman! Dispensing advice that no one will take. Have you suggested he hold seminars on “How to Build a Cathedral and Destroy a Nation’s Trust?”

You’re impossible.

I am not Impossible. Your man was simply insufferable. He appears to exist in a self-made cocoon. Suppose you are honest, try to be objective, and not wear your party partisanship like a badge of honor. In that case, you will know that I only scratch the surface of the views of most Ghanaians - tired, disillusioned, and left wondering how we got to a level that a political figure like Akufo-Addo, who felt no compunction to deceive and lie so brazenly, got into the presidency. As for your Akufo-Addo, may the gods forgive him for his many sins. More importantly, may Ghana, no, make that Africa never be cursed with such a shameless, ruthless, egocentric misruler.

May Akufo-Addo never happen to any of us!

(Farmer, Writer, Published Author, Essayist, Satirist, and Social Commentator.)

My latest book, From Stamp to Click (it’s still a hello), is published and is available online at:

https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/from-stamp-to-click-its-still-hello

My book, “Africa: A Continent on Bended Knees,” is available on:

• Amazon

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My other books on Amazon:

• Africa: it shall be well

• Africa: Destroyed by the gods

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