What Ghanaians are saying about Akufo-Addo

Post-election research conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has revealed that the some Ghanaians are not confident in the ability of the Akufo-Addo government to protect financial resources and curb corruption over the next four years.
The respondents said they are also less optimistic about the administration’s ability to reduce crime.
The survey which was carried out between May 3, and June 3 this year covered all the 16 regions in the country with 2,400 adult respondents.
The 2016 presidential election was won by President Akuffo Addo on the back of a pledge to deal ruthlessly with corruption.
However, after the 2020 election, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 21 parliamentary seats that belongs to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). This result in bringing the opposition NDC’s parliamentary seats to 137 from 106 in 2016 whiles decreasing the NPP’s seats from parliament by 21 seats.
In view of this, a cross-section of Ghanaians were interviewed to ascertain the sharp decrease in the NPP’s presence in Parliament.
The survey also sought to understand the decline in the President’s votes from 53.58% of the valid votes cast in 2016 to 51.59% in 2020, and asked whether things could change during his final term.
Presenting the results on Tuesday, Research Director at CDD-Ghana, Dr Edem Selormey noted that 58% of respondents attributed the reduction in the President’s vote margin to his policy decisions and actions during his first term in office.
She further added that the actions of President Akufo-Addo’s appointees contributed to the loss of votes in the 2020 elections per their findings.
She noted that some respondents explained that NDC was favoured to punish the NPP for negligence.
Reacting to the findings, the NDC’s Director of International Relations Directorate, Alex Segbefia said the results confirm that the Akufo-Addo government has shown less commitment to eradicating corruption.
He, therefore, stressed that the results should serve as a wake-up call to government to nib the menace in the bud.
“When violence occurs during elections and people behave in a certain way and no action is taken, then how will Ghanaians feel that corruption will ever be dealt with?
“Things have happened previously which were not captured in this survey. So this is one aspect of the survey that should not surprise any Ghanaian,” he said.
But the former National Chairman of the NPP, Peter Mac Manu refuted the claims adding that government is on track to clamping down on graft in the country.
Citing the pre-election survey conducted by the same institution, Mr Mac Manu said 55% of the respondents believed that the Akufo-Addo administration is working earnestly to eradicate the menace from the system.