Akufo-Addo’s gov't began well but lost its way — Kufuor assesses NPP’s eight-year rule

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has offered a candid evaluation of the administration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, saying the government showed promise in its early days but later took decisions that left him confused and disappointed.

Speaking during an interview on The Delay Show with Deloris Frimpong Manso, aired on TV3 and shared on YouTube on Saturday, December 6, 2025, Mr Kufuor commended the government’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic but expressed deep concern about several major policy choices that followed.

According to him, three key decisions stood out as particularly troubling. These include the National Cathedral project, the failed Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession involving the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), and the government’s handling of what he described as serious bond and financial market challenges.

On the National Cathedral, the former president said he was initially made to believe the project would be funded privately. However, he later discovered that public funds and state land were being used for a project that remains incomplete to this day.

Mr Kufuor, who governed Ghana from 2001 to 2009, further disclosed that he was never consulted on any of these major national decisions, despite being a senior and respected figure within the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Reflecting on the party’s landslide victory in the 2016 general elections, he noted that the NPP heavily relied on his own record in government to campaign. Yet, he said the direction taken by the party in power, especially in the latter half of its eight-year tenure, departed significantly from what he had anticipated.

When asked what the NPP must do to recover from recent setbacks and reposition itself for the future, Mr Kufuor pointed to unity as the single most important requirement.

“You may not like everyone in your party, but for the sake of the shared principles — democracy, the rule of law — you must come together,” he said. “That is what the people of Ghana expect from us.”

The former president, widely regarded as one of the most influential elders of the NPP, stressed that the party can only regain public confidence by returning to its foundational values of democratic governance, accountability, and respect for the rule of law.

In a rare public critique of the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) administration under Nana Akufo-Addo's leadership, Mr Kufuor said the NPP won the 2016 elections by a "landslide", campaigning on Kufuor's record from 2001 to January 2009, but when they [NPP] got power, they handled it… pic.twitter.com/vK3PQsx6Oc
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December 7, 2025