The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, has described comments that President Akufo-Addo called the bluff of Asantes over threats to vote his Party out in 2024 over poor road infrastructure in some parts of the Ashanti Region as erroneous.
President Akufo-Addo in his recent tour of the Ashanti region gave a media interview to Kumasi-based OTEC FM on Monday where he responded to a question posed by the host of the programme regarding the threats by the people of Kwabre to vote the NPP out of power in the 2024 election due to poor road infrastructure in the area.
Responding to the threats, President Akufo-Addo replied, “no problem. I am saying people make those kinds of threats; me they don’t frighten me.”
Some Ghanaians and the media houses had described the President’s response as calling the “bluff” of the people in the Ashanti region.
But in an interview with the Presidential Press Corps on Thursday at his office, Mr Arhin refuted that claim, adding: “I don’t think the President was calling anybody’s bluff. He was not calling anybody’s bluff.”
The Communications Director said the President’s comment was essential that he was focused on delivering on his mandate and that, the threat to vote out his Party from office was not something he was worried about. “At the end of the day, his focus is to make sure that he delivers.”
“Once he delivers and the road infrastructure is there and you still decide to go and vote for another party, well, that is your problem but I don’t think the President called anybody’s bluff,” he stated.
What President Akufo-Addo sought to indicate in his comments, according to Mr Arhin, was that construction works were ongoing across the region and it was not possible to complete all the roads at the same time.
He said there were ongoing road construction works in the Kwabre and Manso area and assured that by the end of the year “the Ministry of Roads and Highways would award a contract package, about 10 kilometres of roads in the Kwabre District and Manso areas.”
Responding to the economic hardships currently facing Ghanaians, Mr Arhin said the President acknowledged the uncertainty of the economy and its effects on Ghanaians and had repeatedly expressed worry over the hardship but was confident that the economy would be fixed soonest.
He said the government’s policy measures and the country’s collaboration with the IMF were all geared towards ensuring the economy rebound faster than anticipated.
He said the economic hardships were not peculiar to Ghana but all countries in the world, adding: “even in Paris, you have queues for fuel. There are protests going on everywhere” and we’re not indicating economic mismanagement on the part of governments — but Covid-19 and Russia- Ukraine war.”
Mr Arhin described President Akufo-Addo’s recent tour of the Ashanti Region as a success and announced that he would from Friday embark on a 3-day tour of the Eastern Region to commission and inspect ongoing projects in that part of the country.
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