‘Akufo-Addo didn’t care about those who were not close to him’ – Maurice Ampaw

Private legal practitioner, Maurice Ampaw, has criticized former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s leadership style, alleging that he did not care about party members who were not too close to him.

He argued that excessive loyalty rewards to a selected few within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) contributed to the party’s electoral defeat.

In an exclusive interview on The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV, Ampaw asserted that he predicted the NPP’s 2024 elections defeat as far back as 2022, citing issues of reward system for a few loyal members.

According to him, the signs were clear, but the party kept focusing on rewarding long-serving loyalists and failed to energize its grassroots base.

“In 2022, I had an interview and I told the one who was hosting me that NPP will lose the elections. I said it in 2022. So, when 2024 came, I realized that we were losing. But you see when we are losing, what do we have to do? You need to motivate them to go out to go and vote,” he stressed.

Ampaw argued that the NPP’s leadership neglected ordinary supporters while keeping the same individuals in strategic positions for years.

“… the signs were there and the NPP and Nana Addo did not take good care of the base … he was rewarding loyalty too much. That is Nana Addo’s problem. Very good leader but rewarded loyalty. It is you I know; I trust and you do no wrong. So, the rest of us who were not too close to him, he didn’t care,” he said.

“How can one person be a minister for 8 years, a CEO for 8 years,” he questioned the fairness in appointment under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government.

Watch the video below: