Unfiltered Truth: My Journey from Friendship to Critique with President Nana Addo

Some friends in government are asking how it is “I fell out” with my friend, President Nana Addo, as they have noted I “attack him a lot these days.”

I will provide a brief response.

To start with, I have deep respect and admiration for President Nana Akufo-Addo for his decades-long investment in pushing the boundaries of freedom from totalitarian rule. And when he became president, he had not hidden his admiration for my person in meetings sometimes to my pleasant discomfort.

For instance, the President had some flowery compliments for yours truly on November 25, 2017, at the birthday event of one of my respected lawyer friends. “I saw Franklin Cudjoe as I was coming in. And I heard the statement, ‘Now, the most important man in Ghana.’ And I had a feeling he was going to say ‘Franklin Cudjoe.’ Only to hear that it was me that he was talking about. Because he [Franklin Cudjoe] is certainly the most important man in Ghana.”- President Akufo-Addo.

Yes, my able lieutenants, Bright Simons, Selorm Branttie, Kofi Bentil, and I were invited by Nana and his small team of advisers to discuss the feasibility of the Free SHS programme way before Nana won elections in 2016. We disagreed with the free for all approach, but we provided detailed analysis projecting enrolment figures and financial outlays into 2020.

l am so disappointed and angry with him and spare no chance to criticise him for sitting aloof for his ministers and some CEOs of State Enterprises to run the economy aground, destroy our pristine rivers and forests through illegal mining, engage in crookish multi-million dollar procurement scams ( SML,PDS, KelniGVG, 5G network license Frontiers Health Covid-19 [ only 25% of all funds received applied directly to covid-related  interventions].

A few years ago, 85% of all procured contracts bypassed the GIFMIS system that could have tracked cooked scams. Very generous GENSER gas deal to party financiers and very, very poor decisions in the oil sector…losing Ghana almost $30bn in the Aker oil deal.

Just look at what the CEO of the Trade Fair Centre has done to the centre, supposedly under superior management. These are just a few of your grave sins, my friend Nana Addo. I haven’t even added the SALL debacle to the list.

Now Nana’s legacy is that he supervised the most fiscally reckless economy since independence and leaves us with humongous debts to last a lifetime and succeeded in literally cutting us off from borrowing from the international markets. What irks me the most is his cantankerous Cathedral project with a hole waiting for God’s possible fresh anointing. It will never happen before he leaves the office.

So yes, Nana Addo was my friend, and only true friends can tell each other boldly in the face the truth. Nana, your legacy is ruined.

We can be friends again when l read your memoire apologising for taking us on a bumpy ride to your hell’s kitchen.

Now Bawumia is struggling to dance around the economy, the adulterated fuel responsible for the jerky movement of the vehicle you drove, and he is hoping to take over the reins of the damaged vehicle he lavishly praised as the safest ever since Henry Ford’s

God be with him.

The post Unfiltered Truth: My Journey from Friendship to Critique with President Nana Addo first appeared on 3News.

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