As Ghanaians prepare to go to the polls in a few days to elect the next President of the country, the candidates are going round canvassing for votes with their manifestos. I heard one of them, the incumbent President, Nana Akufo-Addo, claim at a rally at Amasaman that the presidency is not a place for trial and error where anyone should ask voters to try him and see.
The “try me and see” phrase drew some curiosity about the one making the claim. It was surprising to hear that from Akufo-Addo who was preaching “try me too” during the 2016 elections. He was the one who went about eating with the poor and visiting their homes. He told them there was money in Ghana while they were hungry; and claimed he would get them to enjoy the “available money.”
However, after getting the mandate from the people, Akufo-Addo became the source of hardship for the very people he deceived to come to power. He attacked, viciously, the people’s livelihoods, collapsing several banks, savings and loans institutions, microfinance and other financial institutions in the country.
These are the institutions that hold the economy of the poor who are fighting to make ends meet. For three years Akufo-Addo watched the people wallow in abject poverty by refusing to pay them their locked up funds. He and his government referred to these unfortunate victims of his policies as reckless and greedy people.
To demonstrate that he cared less about the people, Akufo-Addo who wants their votes again this year, suddenly found money and declared he was going to pay the locked-up funds of some of the investors.
The questions remains; why did the government refuse to pay the people all this while until it needed votes in the upcoming elections? Is it the case that Akufo-Addo is swindling the people once again to fraudulently secure their mandate and turn around to visit his wickedness on them?
Since Akufo-Addo assumed office, several Ghanaians have been dismissed from their jobs in the public sector out of sheer vindictiveness. These innocent citizens and their dependants have suffered untold hardships for the entire period of Akufo-Addo’s term in office.
Those whose businesses collapsed as a result of the haphazard financial sector clean-up have not recovered from the shock yet. For close to four years, road contractors have their monies due them locked up in government coffers while the government engages in shoddy audit of road contracts costing millions of Cedis with no results.
To add salt to the injuries of these Ghanaians, Akufo-Addo has formed a consortium of’ sakawa’ family members who have specialized in corrupt deals through which they siphon state funds into their individual and family pockets.
They are so desperate and shameless in creating and looting state resources with impunity that the PDS and Agyapa deals alone have given them enough cash to last their unborn generations a lifetime without working.
This is the man who claims he has done so well that Ghanaians should not try another candidate. On December 7, suffering Ghanaians are very likely going to remind Akufo-Addo that he is a liar, wicked, corrupt and inconsiderate by voting against him.