The Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Presidency, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has taken a swipe at the performance of the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akuffo-Addo at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate.
Assessing the performances of the presidential candidates that participated in last Tuesday's Evening Encounter, especially that of the NPP flagbearer, Dr. Aidoo was of the firm opinion that the behavioral disposition and posture of Nana Addo was nothing good to write home about.
He pointed out that �beyond the public given the opportunity to determine the qualitative content of the debate, the behavioral disposition of the candidates is important. The behavior of a candidate shows whether or not the candidate can represent the country at the international front.�
Thus, to him, Nana Addo behaved like a typical political demagogue who is on a campaign platform.
�Nana Akufo-Addo is in dire need of a speech therapist and whether the NPP wants to take my friendly advice or not, the fact still stands that Akufo-Addo performed as a political demagogue...His mannerism was so cocky, shrugging the shoulders, he was not on a stage to demonstrate swagger. [If] you want to be swagger, American politics and George Bush definitely are the very epitome of swagger but Nana Akufo-Addo must not forget that Ghana is a very conservative country so far as behaviour disposition is concerned, that is why we revere our traditional authorities,� Dr Tony Aidoo said.
Mahama's Handlers
Contributing to discussions on Radio Gold�s Current Affairs Programme, Alhaji and Alhaji, the former Deputy Defence Minister in the erstwhile Rawlings regime also described President John Dramani Mahama's statement that the present energy crisis is an �act of God� as unfortunate, adding that the energy crisis is rather an �unforeseen� accident.
President Mahama, it will be recalled, indicated at the IEA Presidential debate that destruction of the main gas pipeline in Togo that supplies gas for power generation in the country, which has led to the country experiencing load-shedding nationwide, was an act of God.
But Dr Tony Aidoo, clearly unhappy with the president's false account of the cause of the current power challenges, slammed his "handlers" for failing to provide him with the facts of the matter.
�Now and then he might have said something that didn�t sit well with the audience and this should be a good lesson to his handlers that they must do their research properly so that they don�t put the wrong words in the President�s mouth...there was this issue about the causal factors relating to the current power outages and he happens to mention an act of God. Certainly the cause cannot be said to be an act of God, it doesn�t come close to what we call an act of God,� he said.
The former University Lecturer now turned politician believed the President probably meant to say that �it was an unforeseen accident � it is not an act of God � it was an unforeseen [accident] because nobody knew, anticipated [it] and therefore erected preventive measures that a ship�s anchor will go over the pipeline.�
"The President�s handlers must be very careful so the opposition do not take advantage of such mistakes," Dr. Tony Aidoo warned.
He, however, described the President�s performance as an analytical and well researched delivery which aimed at addressing the country�s social issues.
Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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