Renowned Pan Africanist, Prof. Patrick Lumumba, has rated President Akufo-Addo as disappointing in a review of the Ghanaian President’s performance in office.

In an interview with Accra-based TV Africa, Prof. Lumumba said the President had started very well and oiled expectations with good rhetoric but has so far only fluttered to deceive.

Prof. Lumumba puts Akufo-Addo in the same category as African leaders who start off to a very promising start only to disappoint as quickly as they start.

“…The problem with a number of our leaders is that if you see good in them too soon they disappoint you very quickly. And there is a sense in which I am beginning to feel disappointed by president Akufo-Addo,” he said.

“…he started very well. He had sound ideas…talking about industrialization in every district, he said that he would perform and take Ghana beyond aid; the rhetoric was right. But now, as I watch him consistently I’m beginning to see a mismatch between rhetoric and action and I’m seeing the widening of the gap between action and rhetoric,” Prof. Lumumba said.

Interestingly, the damning assessment by Prof. Lumumba is coming in the heels of Forbes Africa has named Akufo-Addo as African of the year.

That dissonance with the reality on the ground in Ghana was published in the December 2021-January 2022 edition of the magazine which is said to be available on sale.

The announcement has met with contempt from critics who suspect something may have unduly influenced Forbes Africa to claim Akufo Addo as the African of the year when he has driven this country into unprecedented debt; has seen election violence and insecurity rise under his watch and his administration is being regarded as the most corrupt in the history of the country.

The controversial cover report on President Akufo Addo by Forbes has whipped up questions about Forbes’ capacity to do due diligence on who to put on its cover,

In June 2016, Forbes put on its cover the Nigerian millionaire, Obinwanne Okeke alias Invictus Obinna, as one of Africa’s youngest business entrepreneurs that must be celebrated.

However, in 2020, Invictus Obinna was exposed as a fraudster who fleeced some US$11 million through computer and email fraud. He formally pleaded guilty to the charges showing his fraudulent computer-based transacted between 2015 and 2019.

In a similar tone as Invictus Obinna, Forbes wrote about Ghana’s President: “Ghana’s President has repositioned the country in the global marketplace as one reliant on its own resources and strengths.”

Contrary to the glowing accolades, Ghana teetering under its humongous debt, with investors are keeping at arm’s length from the country’s bond offers. Amidst it, the fast depreciation of the cedi and high food inflation has been engendering agitation.

Prof. Patrick Lumumba points out that the President’s monumental failure is leading to agitation in the streets of Accra.

“If I had any doubt in my mind, the young men and women who are now rising up in the streets of Accra are saying with me, ‘Nana we thought you were on the right path but you have now taken an about-turn and you are moving with jet-like speed in the direction that we don’t want to move.”