Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., says he was deeply embarrassed by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo's conduct during an interview on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC's), HardTalk programme.
Nana Addo had a grueling session last week with Stephen Sackur, host of the programme, when he answered questions on Education, Economy, Politics, his �all-die-be-die� battlecry, China's role in Ghana�s development, and many other issues.
His adherents say he acquitted himself well whereas his detractors vehemently disagree.
But speaking as a panelist on Radio Gold�s Alhaji and Alhaji programme, the newspaper Editor said Nana Addo's answers to some of the questions posed to him, clearly indicated that he was ill-prepared for a programme that has no room for rhetoric.
��quite honestly, I was embarrassed. I was so deeply embarrassed, and one question I kept asking since then is who advised him? Who pushed him onto this stage? My position is not that presidential candidates should not be on Hard Talk; everybody who gets the opportunity to be on any platform to express his or her ideas ought to take advantage of that platform. But on whatever platform you are appearing, there is the need for preparation, there�s a need to understand that platform; and one thing which is obvious significant about Hard Talk is that it is a programme about detail so you cannot go there and engage in rhetoric and waffle you way through. It�s a programme that needs serious preparation and that serious preparation obviously was absent,� he said.
The seasoned Journalist stressed that his comment is not about Nana Addo, but a general statement on the comportment of all the country�s political leaders and all political parties when they are offered a platform to sell their message.
�If political leaders want to go outside this country and engage in their trade, then they ought to be properly prepared,� he added.
Clearly, the doubts on the minds of some people when it comes to the NPP flagbearer�s policy on free SHS education and how it was going to be financed will still linger, considering his response when the issue was resuscitated on the program.
To some, the NPP Presidential candidate had a pretty hard time answering the question on how his campaign promise of providing free education up to the Senior High School level was going to cost. When the question of �cost� was thrown directly at him on HardTalk, Nana Addo only responded �the costing is being done�.
When the host insisted on finding out how the policy was going to be financed, Nana Addo said he would rather �tell the Ghanaian people directly�.
�The costing is being done; very soon, we are going to put it out. I�ll prefer to tell the Ghanaian people directly before I tell you. We do know the cost and we have a very good idea at how we are going to finance it,� he said.
Nonetheless, he revealed that his free education policy was going to be paid for from three sources.
�First of all, the new revenue will help; more efficient management of what we have now; and growth in the Ghanaian economy. These are the three sources which we are going to mobilize to fulfill that promise and it is a promise that has been solemnly made to the Ghanaian people and it is going to be solemnly kept not because it is a campaign promise, but because it is a necessity for the future of our country to educate all our young people�There is a major issue of human capital development and if we do not make the effort to achieve that, the development paradigm that we want to achieve will be difficult,� Nana Addo stated.
But Mr Pratt does not agree with Nana Addo�s earlier answer that he will tell the �Ghanaian people directly� how his free SHS policy would be financed.
��There is one point he made�which was the worst and it is not even about free education, it is about the point where he said that � �I am going to tell the Ghanaian people first then I will come back and tell you�; If you think that things to do with your electoral promises and so on ought to be told the Ghanaian people first, why do you rush to the UK to give lectures and to appear on talk shows�before you had done�So I think that that is a huge problem because in the final analysis, what it portrayed was a presidential candidate caught on the wrong foot and diving for cover�� he added.
Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com
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