A senior lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, has expressed disappointment at some comments made by President Akufo-Addo when he toured some communities affected by floods in the Volta region on Monday, October 16, 2023.
At a meeting with some displaced victims, the president stated that he would go beyond the fact that the affected communities did not vote for him and extend the needed support to them.
The comment has since attracted serious criticism from some Ghanaians, including Prof. Gyampo.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 2023 research and development conference at the Simon Diedon Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies in Wa, Prof. Gyampo intimated that portions of the president’s speech were unnecessary and unpresidential.
“The fact that he is the president for the entire country, he spoke well but there were portions of his statements that were unnecessary, they were unpresidential and they were unstatesmanly. I mean he did not speak like the statesman that he ought to be.”
Prof. Gyampo added that the country is confronted with a national crisis and that all it requires is good leadership that will assuage the predicaments of its citizens.
“When there is a national crisis, all that we require is leadership and not nauseating partisan commentary.”
Prof. Gyampo also took a swipe at the Volta River Authority’s management, blaming them for sleeping on their jobs.
He called for swift punishment to be meted out to all those whose actions and inaction resulted in the floods that wreaked havoc on over 12,000 people in the Volta region.
“Elsewhere, heads would have rolled. The leadership of the organization in charge of the Dam would have been made to resign and people would have been fired.”
The renowned lecturer, who is the president of the University of Ghana branch of the University Teachers Association (UTAG), disclosed that their members will soon be making a cash donation to the flood victims.