Inside December 11, 2020

Inside December 11, 2020.qxp_Layout 1 12/10/20 8:09 PM Page 10
12
DAILY
Politics
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
HERITAGE FRIDAY , DECEMBER 11, 2020
Don’t allow appointees to ‘steal’ in
your second term
–Manasseh to Akufo-Addo
FREELANCE JOUR-
NALIST Manasseh
Azure Awuni has
charged Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-
Addo not to allow his
appointees to use their various offices
to steal from the country in
his second term as President.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who led
the New Patriotic Party
(NPP) into the December 7 polls,
was given the nod to continue
serving as Ghana’s President for
the next four years obtaining
6,730,413 votes, representing
51.59% while the flagbearer of
the National Democratic Congress
(NDC), John Dramani Mahama
placed second, garnering
6,214,889 which represents
47.36% of the total ballots cast.
This was announced by Mrs
Jean Mensa of the Electoral Commission,
yesterday, December 9,
2020.
Manasseh, in his congratulatory
message to Akufo-Addo on
his Facebook page, monitored by
thepublisheronline.com, said the
President during his first term was
not as impressive as the people of
Ghana expected him to be with all
the accolades associated with him.
“What a true leader does is to
inspire hope by creating a society
of meritocracy, by creating an atmosphere
that rewards the ingenuity,
creativity and hard work of
its citizens, and by taking decisions
that are in the national interest
but may not be pleasing to his
party and sycophants.
“So your second term can get
better if you pay attention to the
fact that a wealthy country such as
ours is very miserable because its
resources are stolen and hoarded
by a select few while our youth
see every sunrise as a painful reminder
of their hopelessness.
He added that: “It can get better
if you impersonate a bit of the
no-nonsense disposition of the
Nana Akufo-Addo of yore and
employ that against those destroying
the country under your watch.
Your second term will get better if
you become the Akufo-Addo we
thought we knew, and not the
President Akufo-Addo we know.
“Your hands are freer now to
be your true self than when you
had another election before you.
For a President seeking re-election,
acting tough against delinquent
and influential appointees is
like killing the tsetse fly that
perches on the scrotum.”
Below Is His Full Congratulator
y Note To The
President:
Dear President Nana
Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo,
I write to congratulate you on
winning the 2020 presidential
election. I was excited and hopeful
when you first won the election in
2016. Unfortunately, I don’t feel
the same way about this victory.
I’m ambivalent about your second
term, and the reasons are not difficult
to find.
In your first term, you knew
you would come back to seek our
votes, yet the kind of governance
you gave us was unimpressive, to
say the least. You practically called
our bluff. In 2024, you will not
need our votes. Some of your appointees
have their political umbilical
cords tied to your
presidency.
They know that even if the
NPP wins in the next election,
they will have no chance of landing
lucrative jobs. For such people,
there is a lot of motivation to
loot as much as they can and retire
or venture into something
else.
For this reason, your second
term can get worse than we saw in
the first term. But it can also get
•President Nana Akufo-Addo
better, Mr. President. Your second
term can get better if you
care about your legacy. Since the
days of your predecessor, I have
always maintained that any idiot
can borrow money to build hospitals
or pay fees, especially when
there is always an avenue to
pocket a chunk of it.
One does not need to be a genius
of a leader to do that. What a
true leader does is to inspire hope
by creating a society of meritocracy,
by creating an atmosphere
that rewards the ingenuity, creativity
and hard work of its citizens,
and by taking decisions that are in
the national interest but may not
be pleasing to his party and sycophants.
So your second term can
get better if you pay attention to
the fact that a wealthy country
such as ours is very miserable because
its resources are stolen and
hoarded by a select few while our
youth see every sunrise as a
painful reminder of their hopelessness.
It can get better if you impersonate
a bit of the no-nonsense
disposition of the Nana Akufo-
Addo of yore, and employ that
against those destroying the country
under your watch. Your second
term will get better if you
become the Akufo-Addo we
thought we knew, and not the
President Akufo-Addo we know.
Your hands are freer now to be
•Manasseh Azure Awuni
your true self than when you had
another election before you. For a
president seeking re-election, acting
tough against delinquent and
influential appointees is like killing
the tsetse fly that perches on the
scrotum. But now, you’re free
from those threats and political
blackmail. So let’s see a bit of the
Akufo-Addo that was marketed to
us in 2016.
Let us see the Akufo-Addo
who is a believer of the rule of
law, not one that believes and promotes
the rule of thuggery; an
Akufo-Addo who believes in
press freedom, and not one that
believes only in press freedom
favourable to him. And finally, let
us see a new NPP under your
leadership.
Let us see the democratic and
civilised NPP of old, the one that
was attractive to intellectuals but
still maintained its core base. Let
us see the NPP that gives men
and women of valour and principles
a chance, and not one that
has been hijacked rogues and
questionable characters because of
their dubious wealth.
If you remember my “Ogyam”
epistle, I said you were becoming
stronger, but the party was becoming
weaker. A party founded
on the core principles of democracy
and good governance should
not be using “North Korean”
principles in dealing with and
eliminating candidates who want
to either lead the party or contest
for parliament because they are
not the favourites of a few. In this
election, the NPP voters have
shown the party “a little bit of
Atiwa” and I hope you and the
party will pick some useful lessons
from there.
I wish you good luck and
pledge my unalloyed support to
make your second term a success.
I intend to support you not by
joining the innumerable courtiers
of paid and unpaid praise-singers
of the administration. Like the
charge given to the Prophet of
God in Ezekiel 3:17, I intend to
point out to you what’s going
wrong.
But if you do things worthy of
praise and defending, I will not
withhold that from you as I have
done in the past. God bless you
and bless our Homeland Ghana.
Yours sincerely,
Manasseh Azure Awuni Your
friend (Or former friend. I’m not
sure of my current status from
your end)