I remain solid and composed in the face of adversities, says President Akufo-Addo

In times of crises, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that he keeps his composure and stability.

This serves to encourage the populace to remain steady and to have faith that any challenge can be overcome.

To the people of Ghana, he stated, “I am forced by where I am to be stable and composed and make sure that I reflect that issues the country is experiencing are surmountable and not one in which we have to hang our heads and feel defeated.”

This was spoken by President Akufo-Addo to girls from the Wesley Girls High School of Cape Coast on Wednesday while they were on a tour of the Jubilee House in Accra.

This was a response to a student’s query regarding how the President manages to remain composed in the face of difficulties and crises.

The questions from the second- and third-year senior high school students (SHS2 and SHS3) covered topics like how the government functions, foreign aid and its impact on the economy, the president’s composure amid a crisis, and how resources are distributed so that schools can benefit. President Akufo-Addo took the students, who numbered over 150, through the concepts of separation of powers, checks and balances, and how those democratic building blocks have operated in Ghana since independence in what might qualify as one of the longest open interactions the President has had with any group that visited the Jubilee House, especially students.

Also, he guided them through the operations of all three branches of the government, with a focus on the Executive branch, which he leads, and the ministries, departments, and organisations that fall under it.

In response to inquiries, President Akufo-Addo said that if there were difficulties or crises and Ghanaians perceived him, the country’s leader, as shaky, then meant that the entire nation was shaking, which was bad news for the populace.

The President said, “It is crucial in leadership that you have that coolness so that when events happen, they can be overcome and controlled so the people know it was not an issue we had to hang our heads and be defeated.

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He continued, “It is crucial that you do demonstrate that composure in leadership so that events, when they arise, are occurrences that can be surmounted and handled.

The COVID-19 outbreak, which occurred when President Akufo-Addo was travelling in Switzerland and watched on the news about the outbreak in China, disturbed him because of the interactions between Ghanaians and the Chinese, especially at the level of trade, he claimed.

The President remarked, adding that he was focused on what was needed to be done, “I immediately recognised that there was a need for us to handle this problem strategically so that we don’t get overwhelmed by the pandemic.”

About the educational decisions he made that lead him to become President, he revealed that his first degree was in Economics and that at first, he was not interested in law since he believed it was something that was prevalent in his household due to his late father’s skill as a lawyer.

Thereafter, according to President Akufo-Addo, he studied law and began his legal career. He said that “these and other things I read aided me in the job and decision I made as a leader.”

The Free SHS decision, which the President said was made when the party was in opposition and was based on empirical data that each year, about 100,000 students from the JHS level could not make it to the SHS due to lack of resources on the part of their parents and guardians, was used by the President to illustrate how policies were developed and put into practise.

President Akufo-Addo claimed to have read about the United States’ decision to pass a law-making secondary education free and questioned why Ghana was unable to follow suit if a typical market economy country like the USA could.

The President stated that the New Patriotic Party opted to adopt it regardless of the early difficulties after weighing the costs, benefits to the nation, and policy consequences.

Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the then-Minister and their respective assistants, received high praise from President Akufo-Addo for the great way in which they carried out the strategy with fervour and dedication.

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