Founder and Leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Akwasi Addai Odike, has criticized former President John Agyekum Kufuor over his recent comments about the administration of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to Odike, former President Kufuor has no grounds to blame Akufo-Addo because he is also part of the challenges the country is currently facing.
Speaking in an interview on Angel TV on December 9, 2025, Odike stated that Kufuor had the responsibility to question Akufo-Addo on some of his decisions but failed to do so and therefore should not be criticizing him now.
“To be honest with you, I have learnt two things from what Kufuor said. The first is that he wants to tell us that the NPP is not an organized party but we know that a political party is a group of people who have come together with one ideology and a common interest.
“Also, Kufuor wants us to push the blame onto Akufo-Addo so that Ghanaians will have sympathy for the NPP, that Akufo-Addo is to be blamed and not the party as a whole, “he said.
Odike further stated, “But Kufuor should know that he is a statesman and he has every right to speak up when things are not going well. Kufuor was silent on so many things. When he saw that the Cathedral was being funded by the state, what did he do about it? When everyone was criticizing him, what did he do?
“I didn’t expect such words from him because he is part of the NPP and what did he do about Akufo-Addo’s government?”
He added, “So, with Akufo-Addo’s government, Kufuor is part of the mess. He didn’t help the country, and that is why we are still here. It is not today that they want to paint the NPP nicely to the public by putting all the blame on Akufo-Addo.”
His comments come after Kufuor criticized the Akufo-Addo administration over troubling policy choices which he believes contributed to the New Patriotic Party’s defeat in the 2024 general elections.
Speaking on The Delay Show, Kufuor said he never understood the rationale behind key decisions such as the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), the National Cathedral project, and the Power Distribution Services (PDS) deal, adding that he was not consulted on any of them.
He further noted that the NPP’s return to power in 2016 was largely driven by the record and achievements of his administration.
“Before the 2016 election in which Akufo-Addo was elected, the campaign was built on my achievements. Those achievements played a key role in his victory. The government started on a good note, but things changed after he assumed power,” Kufuor said.
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