I was just beginning to compose this piece yesterday, when the phone rang. On the line was Kwesi Coomson, one of the young men around my good friend Ato Sam (alias Baby Ansaba) and who are helping to produce Ato’s pet project, The Punch Newspaper.
His caller’s message left me perplexed and unable to concentrate properly. “Ato Sam is gone,” the young man said. For a long time, I was unable to concentrate on the assignment on hand. I knew Ato Sam had been quite ill and was commuting between his base at Kasoa and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
It is only proper to stop what I was doing and pray for the Almighty to have mercy on his soul. In the midst of life, they say, we are in death. I am in a state of mourning, but like they say, life must go on.
Meanwhile, as we all know, it is decision time on Monday. Everything being equal, 16 and a half million of the adult population of Ghana will queue at some 33,000 polling booths around the country on Monday, December 7, 2020, to settle the scores between incumbent President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party on one hand, and former head of state Mr. John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress on the other.
There are nine other minor distractions on the ballot box. They include Mr. Christian K. Andrews, otherwise known as Osofo Kyiri Abosom, and his Ghana Union Movement, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings and her National Democratic Party, and Ivor Kobina Greenstreet who is leading the Convention People’s Party. Others are Madam Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party, Mrs. Brigitte Dzogbenuku of the Progressive People’s Party, Mr. Hassan Ayariga, Founder and Leader of the All People’s Congress, and Mr. Kofi Akpaloo, who is leading the Liberal Party of Ghana.
It is a tall list of presidential contestants, but trust me, all the eight candidates in this category might not garner three percent of the popular vote. All Monday’s vote is about are the two main contestants.
Nana Akufo-Addo and John Mahama enter the third phase of their presidential challenge with the score at 1-1. In football terms, it is a draw. Monday’s vote will determine who is who in this nation’s electoral process.
In the course of campaigning, a whole volume of water, some heavily polluted, has passed under the bridge. It is unfortunate, but the NDC especially, has made the campaign grounds for vilifying the sitting head of state.
As a matter of fact, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the most vilified person ever to lead this country. Officials and foot soldiers of the NDC have made it a point of attacking his person for no reason other than he is leading from the front. It is an obviously orchestrated reason to frustrate the man to give up.
These tactics have obviously not worked in the past, and there is no reason to believe that it would ever work. The President, who is leading the New Patriotic Party into the elections, looks more focused than ever.
I hope and pray that Mrs. Jean Mensa and her commissioners at the Electoral Commission would pay special attention to the Information Technology Department. All the tricks like people not finding their names in the register might originate from this department under inducement.
Comparing the President of the nation to his main challenger is an exercise in futility. The two have very little in common, beyond both men having had a feel of the leadership of this country.
Last week, I wrote twice in this column, stating why I will not cast my ballot paper in favour of Mr. John Dramani Mahama. In this article, I intend to explain why it is necessary to keep Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at Jubilee House for four more years.
The President of the Republic is humble, focused and has dedicated himself to the grand transformation of the Ghanaian society. The Free Second Cycle education programme must certainly be the greatest social interventionist policy in the whole of Africa. Education is the key to national development.
When I hear Mr. John Mahama on the campaign trail pontificating about him bringing free SHS, I get visibly angry. I know he believes Ghanaians have short memories. But I vividly recall about forty or so adverts he and his NDC put out on television in the run-up to the 2016 elections mocking the free education concept.
In one particular instance, school kids removed their uniforms shouting that they would not go to school, because education is debased if it is offered for free.
The presidential candidate of the NDC should leave Ghanaians to lick our wounds over the eight years of Mills/Mahama oligarchy.
This society has to reform. Put me on record. It is only Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP that have what it takes to move this society forward. He has the foresight and the driving spirit to do things at all costs.
When the present occupant of Jubilee House, then in opposition, conceived this idea of free second cycle education, he was mocked by the then government in power as a person who had lost his thinking prowess. Now, they are trying hard to claim credit for it.
I understand the NDC held a news conference yesterday, promising free tertiary education if Mr. John Mahama wins the vote. It is a brilliant idea, but where is the funding coming from?
Some of us benefitted from free tertiary education and I hope it could be brought back. But at that time, the entire student population of the University of Ghana, Legon, for instance, was less than 5,000. All state universities were three – Legon, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Cape Coast.
I am told that tertiary institutions in this country number 72 at the moment. Has there been any analysis to gauge how all these could operate at full cost to the state?
Education is the game-changer, but we must be a bit careful with the idea of politicising it. When free second cycle education was floated, the naysayers said it would amount to devaluing the content. But the first results from the Fee Free Second Cycle Education seem to indicate that the concept has rather improved the children’s output. The case of the Adeiso kid who got 8As is sensational. Thomas Amoaning was walking six kilometres everyday from his village to the Adeiso Senior High School, a purely day institution, and still scored 8As. The good news is that the President has directed the National Scholarship Secretariat to award a scholarship to the rural folk.
My only disappointment is the decision to send the kid abroad for tertiary education. Are we suggesting that our local universities are not up to standard?
There is no doubt about the fact that as a leader, Nana Akufo-Addo is a game changer. The way and manner he has led the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic from the front has won this country international applause. The economy has always been a difficult arena, with the Coronavirus bringing everything to a halt. But the Show Boy has steered this country out of troubled waters, even though the boat continues to wobble.
When Nana Akufo-Addo floated the idea of One District, One Factory, the naysayers only saw an election gimmick. Some of us believed in his leadership to provide jobs for the rural community through the initiative. As a native of Ekumfi, I am proud to state that the Ekumfi Fruit Juice factory at Nanabin, hometown of Railways Minister Joe Ghartey, has churned out one of the best fruit juices in the universe, comparable, if not better, than any such product anywhere.
I hope and pray that the factory would improve on its marketing strategy to sell the product, not only in this county, but abroad as well. I believe the Ekumfi Juice Factory product would serve this nation well in the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ crusade. I am confident that it would do well on the export market. I cannot write on the leadership qualities of the sitting President without a chapter on the ‘Planting for Food and Export’ Programme.
If anybody wants to look back to the period preceding Nana Akufo-Addo’s occupation of Jubilee House, the person would discover that there were long periods when basic food items like plantain, cassava, yam, maize etc, were not in season. Now, all these food items are almost always available.
It tells a lot about the thinking process that went into the launching of the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme. Minister of Food and Agriculture Dr. Osei Afriyie Akoto has played his part well.
The smooth and peaceful manner of creating six more regions, with my good friend, Daniel Kwaku Botwe, leading is craftsmanship. I understand they call Dan, ‘Okere Mugabi’ on the ‘Mountains’ for his long spell as Member of Parliament. Bravo, Dan! The smooth creation of the six additional regions tells the story of a President on top of his brief.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stands tall. He is sure to gain the people’s confidence and win handsomely at the polls on Monday, with a comfortable majority in Parliament. Nana Addo, the ‘Show Boy’, is the man of the people.
I shall return!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
The post Nana Addo, the Show Boy, stands tall appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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