• Adom-Otchere commends Akufo-Addo for media engagement
• President Akufo-Addo tours various regions
• Projects under 1D1F commissioned
Host of Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom-Otchere has lauded President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for “dramatically changing the model of presidential accountability to the people through media interviews”.
In the last couple of months, the president has been embarking on a tour across the country as part of his annual working visit to the sixteen regions.
Among others, he has commissioned and inspected projects under the 1 District 1 Factory initiative in furtherance of his industrialsation agenda, cut sod for road construction projects, visited and interact with traditional authorities in the respective communities, and touted the achievements of his government.
Very characteristic of the president’s tour is his interaction with the media – a trait Adom-Otchere commends the president for.
“With what President Akufo-Addo has been doing, he’s completely changed the model of presidential accountability to the people and I think that the model is going to stay for a long time to come. Here’s the president who is granting interviews all the time”, the broadcaster remarked.
Citing developments in the past to back his assertion, the TV show host said some presidents did not interact effectively with the media during their tenure.
“For those of us that have covered the Fourth Republic, we started with presidential press conferences; it didn’t really materialize and communication between the president of Ghana and the people of Ghana during the period that he is president was very scarce. We put up a question at the constitution review committee back in the day asking why the president cannot appear before parliament and take presidential question time”, he noted.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has apologized for denying that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had made any commitment to construct a harbour at Cape Coast. The president, during his tour of the Central region, had insisted in an interview with Cape Coast-based Eagle FM that “the commitment was never to a harbour; it was to a landing site.”
However, in an interview on Accra-based Peace FM, Friday, he admitted to making a mistake. He said: “Let me just confess it. I made a mistake… Presidents are human after all; we are not supermen. We make mistakes.”