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The 2016 flag bearer of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has inadvertently descended heavily on past leaders and governments of Ghana, including the Kufuor government he served as foreign minister, describing them as failures. According to Nana Akufo-Addo, although Ghana�s prospects since independence in 1957 showed it could be transformed within a short period; successive governments have failed to transform the country�s economy. In a desperate move, and reaffirming President Robert Mugabe�s recent damning verdict on Ghana, even when former President Kufuor has discounted the Zimbabwean President�s comments, Nana Akufo-Addo, speaking at the second Aliu Mahama lecture on Tuesday in Accra, stated �I was in Seoul, Korea last month, and came back home with mixed feelings. What I saw made me sad. I was sad to see how a nation, together with which we started the journey of freedom in 1957, transformed its economy to become a first world economy, while we struggle to keep our lights on. And yet at independence, Ghana was seen as the better bet to succeed. At the same time, I was hugely encouraged by what Korea had managed to do within a generation. This strengthened my belief that it is possible to turn Ghana round and transform our economy and society within a short period also. But what has led to this vast disparity in fortunes between the two countries? The Koreans have had nearly as many coups d��tat as Ghana,� he stated. In an apparent bid to downplay the performance of the Mahama administration, Nana Addo eventually ended up discrediting the eight year rule of former President Kufuor�s government, which also first appointed him as Minister of Justice and Attorney General and subsequently, Foreign Affairs Minister. Nana Addo noted �They succeeded because of competent, decisive, results-oriented, disciplined and principled national leadership; because systems were made to work. It�s about obeying the rules of the game; it�s about developing the people�s pride in the national paradigm that is set; it�s about applying and maintaining market-sustaining incentives; it�s about giving workers the incentives to excel; it�s about investing in human capital; it�s about spending wisely and boldly on infrastructure, research and technical education; and it�s about never shirking your patriotic responsibility as public servants to spend public funds strictly according to value for money.� President Robert Mugabe was recently quoted to have said �I have been to Ghana 1958 to 1960 and when you look at them now and compare their present situation to that [which] existed in the 1960s, no change. There might be more people. Yes. There may be one road from the airport, which has been well done so that people who visit the country think everything is ok. That�s about all, no change. There are still areas where not all children go to school, big countries and you wonder why? It�s because they have remained under the control of countries like France, European countries like that. But in a sharp response former President Kufuor noted �That is his opinion and I would leave it at that� but Ghana definitely has made some improvements, in fact fantastic improvements from the 1960s. The population now is near 30 million, that time 60s, 70s Ghana was just about 10 million and that is a lot of difference. In terms of physical developments and other aspects, I believe our country has moved on quite a lot.� However, the three times flag bearer of the NPP rejected former President Kufuor�s response and endorsed Mugabe�s verdict on Ghana which indicts all Ghanaian leaders including Kufuor.