The Publisher of Ovation Magazine, Chief Dele Momodou has said Ghana is blessed to have president Akufo-Addo as her leader.
Speaking Wednesday on Starr Chat, the renowned publisher said despite his opposition to Mr. Akufo-Addo during the 2016 electioneering, he admires his acumen.
“When God has put someone in authority, you must respect him [because] it is not easy to be president of any country,” he told Starr Chat Host Bola Ray adding, “and Ghana is blessed to have leaders like Nana Akufo-Addo and all the others before him.”
Describing Akufo-Addo’s speech during the visit of French president, Emmanuel Macron to Ghana last year as apt, Chief Momodou said: “There’s something I like about leadership, I love intellectual leaders.”
“In fact the speech Nana [Akufo-Addo] made when the French president [Emmanuel Macron] came to Ghana; it went viral and I was one of those people who promoted it,” he disclosed.
Not surprise Mahama lost
Chief Momodou is widely known to be an ardent supporter of President John Mahama told Bola Ray he was not surprised he lost the 2016 elections to President Akufo-Addo.
Akufo-Addo garnered 5, 716, 609 votes, representing 53.84 percent to snatch the presidency from former Mahama who secured 4,713,277 votes, representing 44.40 percent.
The NDC also lost more than 40 parliamentary seats to the NPP, which gave the latter majority in Parliament. Akufo-Addo won the election after a third term bid.
Chief Momodou said despite openly declaring his support for Mahama in that year’s election, he knew deep down that retaining the power will be a herculean task.
“Because there were a lot of similarities to [Goodluck] Jonathan in Nigeria,” he told Bola Ray when asked if he had seen Mahama’s defeat coming in 2016.
He continued: “The easiest way to get rid of a government is to accuse it of corruption and most people that is what they want to hear. Whether it is true or not people just want[ed] to hear. And it is in the character of politics that you must damage your opponent and damage him beyond repair.”
My support unflinching despite staring defeat
Enumerating what he thinks was Mahama’s shortcomings during the electioneering, Chief Momodou said, “He was too busy concentrating on his project. That was one problem. The second one was that Mahama could not really be bothered about what people said about him. That’s why he used to say ‘I’m a dead goat.’ He couldn’t be bothered. He was not afraid.”
According to him, Mahama took several bold decisions during his reign and “he paid the price for taking those bold decisions.”
“So you saw the defeat coming, staring him in the face,” chipped in Bola Ray. “Oh! It was a tough battle for him,” he replied.
Asked why he was still glued to the Mahama ticket despite him knowing the obvious, he reiterated that, “In life, you don’t say that because you are going to be defeated you’ll just sit down at home and do nothing.”
“For him, it was a great experience and I’m so proud of him for bowing out gracefully,” he said despite a lot of pressure on him not go.
Mahama wants Ghana to succeed
Mr. Mahama, according to Chief Momodou, is not a sour loser and that his love for Ghana outweighs his political ambition.
That, he said, evidently manifested itself in his early concession of defeat adding, despite being in opposition he does not wish for Akufo-Addo to fail.
“He is a totally cosmopolitan human being,” said Chief Momodou stressing “as a matter of fact I know that if he is called upon at any time to give good and useful ideas to this government, he would.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
