Ghana’s outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo is currently facing backlash on social media after he unveiled a statue of himself while on a tour of the country’s Western Region.
According to the region’s minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah the monument was meant to honour the development initiatives the president had supervised while still in office.
However, this reasoning had not been well received by a lot of Ghanaians who have been mocking its installation (outside a hospital in the city of Sekondi) tagging it as “self glorification” on social media.
Akufo-Addo, who will be retiring in January after two terms in power, has claimed that he has fulfilled 80% of his promises to Ghanaians.
During the unveiling ceremony, Darko-Mensah, who is tasked with supervising the Western Region, highlighted several key projects that were established under the president.
But the statue has elicited harsh of criticisms from the citizens, with some Ghanaians questioning its importance when several key projects were still incomplete.
A section of the public is now calling for the statue – photos of which have gone viral – to be pulled down immediately the president leaves office.
During his tour, the 80-year-old president has singled out his policy to scrap fees for secondary schools as his “most significant legacy”.
His visit had also seen him campaigning nationwide for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) where he urged people to vote for his deputy, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, in the upcoming general election.
Bawumia will be the NPP’s candidate and President Akufo-Addo had claimed that a vote for him would see the continuation of the party’s policies and projects.
The rising cost of living is a primary and vital campaign issue in Ghana, Africa’s leading producer of gold.