Feature: As Akufo-Addo begins showing his true colours – By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

Folks, there is every reason to say and conclude that Akufo-Addo seems not to know how to do things so as not to go down the rough road in Ghanaian politics after being put in power by the poor people who bought into his politics of promises.

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Much has already happened to confirm duplicity and dishonesty in his dealings with the people to whom he reached out for support at Election 2016—and who easily saw in him the Messiah that they didn’t see in Nkrumah, Limann, Rawlings, Mills, and Mahama, among others.

They voted for him and held their fingers crossed that he would redeem them and make life worth living for them, at least.

Those in Nima who openly saw Akufo-Addo as “one of them” sacrificed a lot for his bid to be in power. And they spread their lot all over the place to win goodwill for him. Many happenings before Election 2016 in Nima proved it all. Some were even prepared to lay down their lives in his defence.

Okay. He is in power. One pertinent question to ask is: What plans has Akufo-Addo begun implementing for Nima, especially in the vicinity of his household to prove that he truly appreciates the support of the residents who have defended his cause all this while? Or that he will invest resources in facelifting the slum (all that noise about Zongo development irritates, not soothes anybody, especially given the m,isplaced priority with which the government has begun approaching this aspect of its “huhudious” promise—providing an Astro turf for every Zongo community in Ghana. The leaders of the Zongo Community have already pooh-poohed such an announcement. What next?)

I am yet to be shown any concrete thing that Akufo-Addo has done or begun doing to assuage doubts and fears that he cares for the very people he snuggled to in the electioneering campaign period, joining them on tro-tro, eating “ampesi” with them in their kitchens, drinking satchet water in the sweltering heat and what-not. At the other end, Dr. Bawumia and his team vigorously pounded fufu for the common people to show their love. But Akufo-Addo and Bawumia aren’t common people. They don’t belong there. The deception did the trick for them at Election 2016.

All of a sudden, though, something ominous has emerged from his quarters: Traders operating in the neighbourhood of his residence are to cease operating there by March 15, 2018!!

Why? Because his residence and its surroundings are now a security zone and must be protected by the tax payer. How to do so? Kick out all those who have for many years lived and worked there.  Render them jobless and make them homeless. Oyiwa!! The Animal Farm analogy in full spin!!!

And how is the scheme being implemented? The government is paying those traders 3,000 Ghana Cedis each to move out of the area without getting for them any alternative place to ply their trade. In effect, they will “float”. More trouble for the unemployed!! (See https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Government-pays-traders-around-Nana-Addo-s-house-GHC3000-to-leave-632967).

How? Should we disregard the plight of these affected traders with the claim that they called everything upon their own heads but supporting a con-man? Shouldn’t they have known better than they did in sacrificing their lot for his good? Not my lookout!!

But how about the tax payer? The money being dished out, we are told, is from the government. In other words, the national kitty. How did anybody come to the conclusion that 3,000 Ghana Cedis would be sufficient to “buy out” those traders and relocate them in areas where they can continue to be in business?

And who is in charge of this disbursement of public funds for a cause that hasn’t been budgeted for? White-collar thievery in full measure. And this is coming from someone who has angered us already by his purulent claim to be in power to protect the public purse while presiding over abject thievery by unscrupulous means? Unprecedented.

In any case, why should it be the  responsibility of the government to waste public funds this way? Or is it in the process of acquiring that residence and its surroundings for Ghana? If not, why should it waste public funds on Akufo-Addo’s private property this way?

When elitism takes over, nothing makes sense any more. Yet, these are the self-righteous irritants claiming to be positioned to protect the public purse. Now that he has turned his gun on these poor people who put him in power, what next?

Indeed, change has come to Ghana.

I shall return…

The views expressed by this author remain solely their own and are not to be taken as the view of the Editorial Board of www.africanewsanalysis.com,  www.zongonews.com and ZongoNews Radio & TV