The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Okudzeto Ablakwa, says President Nana Akufo-Addo should focus on restoring public confidence in his administration, following the recent post-election survey released by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
“If you do the analysis from all the Afrobarometers and juxtapose it with this survey, it is clear that confidence in the President is at an all-time low. The President should be very worried about that. I think the President has to sit up,” Mr. Ablakwa said on Joy FM’s News File.
The former Deputy Minister of Education said the findings of the survey cannot be taken lightly, given that the governing NPP had over the years failed to take a firm stance against corruption.
“There have been very palpable, tangible, concrete examples of corruption [under the governing NPP]. The President has had to fire people. He has had to promise investigations, except that often these investigations lead nowhere.”
Mr. Ablakwa cited the Ameri deal, the manhandling of the former Auditor General, Yao Domelevo, and the resignation of Martin Amidu as examples of the governing NPP’s lack of commitment to fighting corruption.
“Look at how the Auditor General was hounded out of office… This is a celebrated Auditor General of high repute. Yao Domelevo’s only mistake was to dare to surcharge the Senior Minister.”
What the survey said
62% of 2,400 Ghanaians interviewed in the CDD-Ghana post-election survey conducted between May 23 and June 3, 2021, say they do not have confidence in the ability of President Akufo-Addo “to protect the country’s financial resources and curb corruption in the next four years.”
“While Ghanaians are split (48% vs. 48%) on the government’s ability to ensure that rule of law is upheld in the next four years, majority [of them] are not confident in its ability to protect the country’s financial resources (53%) and curb corruption and official impunity (62%),” the report added.
Officials of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), have consistently chastised the President for superintending over what they say is massive corruption, notwithstanding that the President has insisted that his fight against corruption is unprecedented.
In this round of the post-election survey, however, Ghanaians say President Akufo-Addo will not be able to curb corruption and impunity in his second term.