Did His Pro-CPP Phase In His Youth Shape President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo?

A few days after the event,  I was asked by an old wag I know, why, thus far, I had still not commented on President Akufo-Addo's recent encounter at the Flagstaff House with sections of the Ghanaian media.

My answer to him was that for me, personally, it would only make sense judging the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration of President Akufo-Addo, when it reaches the halfway mark in its four-year tenure.

Be that as it may, my main observation, as I watched the live television feed showing the event, was how the president effortlessly fielded questions - and literally had the media professionals present at the Flagstaff House that day eating out of the  palm of his hand.  Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o.

It is amazing  just how mesmerising the effect of a posh English accent - and being  erudite -  has on so many citizens of  a nation in which  the vast majority of educated people have such a poor command of the English language that it is sometimes embarrassing listening to some of them speak English at public functions.

I put  that unfortunate situation down to the fact that for decades  it has been  considered fashionable for young people in second-cycle and tertiary educational institutions  across  Ghana - whose parents incidentally spend huge fortunes educating them - to routinely speak pidgin English outside their classrooms and lecture halls.

It is a terrible habit, which irritates many  old fogeys - such as myself - no end.

The question is: Do our younger generations not realise that they are literally competing with their peers from across the globe, some of whom happen to be native speakers of English - in the broadband, high-speed internet age:  in which innovative amd disruptive employers in the tech sector worldwide hunt for talent in a pool that straddles the entire globe, literally?

And they complain about graduate unemployment. Poor souls. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o.

Yet another observation of the event, which I made, was  how over the decades since his overthrow in 1966, fickle-minded followers of President Nkrumah have watched on helplessly as the political progeny
of the elitist and tribal-supremacist lackeys of neocolonialism - who undermined Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) government in
relentless fashion till it was eventually toppled in a military coup -  have succeeded in creating an unjust social order in Ghana.

It was also ironical for me that the most important of all the CPP government's policies, the free education initiative that allowed bright young people from even the poorest of backgrounds who hailed from the remotest hamlets across Ghana too,, become engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc., etc.,  is being brought back by no less a personality than the scion of a wealthy conservative family, who has
become our nation's president - just as his late father President Edward Akufo-Addo once was.

And so it also is with many of the members of our ruling elites - including some of those who now serve in his regime.

It is also interesting that it is a president from a privileged background who has had the  courage and political will to do so, who is now finally stopping the super-wealthy crooks in the ruthless criminal syndicates engaged in small-scale gold mining - both legal and illegal - from destroying what is left of our nation's priceless natural heritage. Incredible, but true. Amazing.

Above all, it may very well turn out that by the end of his tenure as president in January 2021 - if he decides against running for office again, that is -  President Akufo-Addo might eventually be considered as the most effective president Ghana has had, thus far,  since President Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966.

Perhaps Nkrumah's influence did actually help shape the world-view of President Akufo-Addo during his rebellious years as a pro-CPP young man who often railed against his own class, after all. How marvellous.