Akufo-Addo lobbied for Global Citizen Festival to be held in Ghana – Okraku Mantey

• Posted on September 27, 2022September 27, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture, Mark Oktaku Mantey has underscored the importance of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the staging of the Global Citizen Festival in Accra.

He said the festival organisers initially wanted to hold it Nigeria, however, the President stepped in to lobby for it to come to Ghana.

Ghana was picked by the organizers partly because President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had showed interest in having it take place in Ghana.

In an interview on Hitz FM, he mentioned that the concert was part of efforts aimed at marketing Ghana’s tourism, “and so, president Akufo-Addo showed interest, originally Global Citizen, they wanted to go to Nigeria, for some good reasons, we were the ones who won,” he said.

The event has hogged the news headlines because of an incident where the president was booed by a section of the crowd as he arrived on stage to deliver his welcome address. Nana Akufo Addo was met with loud heckling and hoots from spectators as they chanted “Away” from the crowd when he mounted the stage to deliver his keynote address on the night.

This has had the governing administration unhappy about the incident and has accused the NDC of it.

According to a statement issued by the Deputy Director of Communications, Ernest Owusu Bempah Bonsu said the NDCs perpetuated the orchestration of heckling of the president for political scores.

Mr. Owusu Bempah said it was disgraceful for the NDC to organize its supporters to go and shout down the President in the manner it happened.

“Truly, politicians don’t expect to be popular all the time. Getting on with running the country is a job where you have to take difficult decisions a lot of the time. There’s nothing wrong if President Akufo-Addo goes to an event and receives cold reception. That’s a normal occurrence.

“But then, to allow politics to take center stage at such an event and single out the President unfairly for political point scoring raises serious concerns. To put it more bluntly, it is pure evil and utter disgrace for the NDC to organize its supporters to go and shout down at the President the manner it happened,” he said.

Amidst jeering from the crowd, President Nana Akufo Addo delivered his speech without a hitch. He spoke about the government of Ghana’s involvement in eradicating poverty and upholding national unity while charging the youth to take up advocacy and responsibility for the SDG goal.