“Will Akufo Addo run for presidency?” captures the front page of the Statesman. The paper says ‘never since Nkrumah and Busia has a Ghanaian politician been able to articulate such a clear political vision’ was how a veteran politican described the views expounded by Nana Akufo Addo NPP Member of Parliament for Abuakwa during the just-ended Fourth Annual John Kugblenu memorial Lectures in Accra. It said Nana Akufo Addo did indeed display the confidence of a man with a mission, enjoying standing ovations from the audience for three days running. The paper says Nana Akufo Addo’s final delivery, last Thursday, opened him up to the speculation as to whether he would seek the people’s mandate in the year 2000 to translate his ‘New Ghana’ vision into reality. The Statesman said Nana Akufo Addo, dilating on the theme “The Millenium, Challenges and Prospects of the Fourth Republic,” used the limited time provided by the three-day lecture to tackle what he described as the “Ghanaian Project” from the institutional, economic and intellectual angles. The paper said, with precision, he dispassionately and objectively diagnosed the chronic Ghanaian ailment and attempted forthright prescriptions through ‘lenses worn more by statesmen than politicians.’ “In spite of the alarming and in most cases, chilling diagnosis, the Abuakwa MP, proclaiming himself an incurable optimist, expressed the belief that we have it in our grasp to seize the challenge of our time and to build a humane civilisation in which the spectre of pervasive poverty will be banished and our ancient freedom preserved,” says the Statesman. GRi [Full texts of the three speeches will be published by GRi in the foreseeable future]
