Former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, has critiqued President Nana Akufo-Addo, accusing him of manipulating state resources to influence the December 2024 elections.

In an opinion piece, Mr Amidu argues that the president’s last-minute infrastructural commissions are a blatant abuse of incumbency and a calculated effort to obscure his administration’s economic and social failures.

“President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is so scared of a free and fair democratic contest… that he reserved most of the infrastructural developments undertaken under his tenure to be commissioned by his chosen successor and himself within the last three months to the 7 December 2024 elections,” he wrote.

The former Special Prosecutor labelled this strategy “a condescending insult to the electorate” and a “smokescreen to syphon public funds at the taxpayers’ expense.”

Mr Amidu compared the current administration’s tactics to previous governments, noting how voters often reject incumbent candidates who employ such strategies.

“The electorate has historically exhibited an awareness of incumbent governments’ ploy to deliberately postpone the commissioning of projects… to cover up their mismanagement of the public purse, abuse of power, and corruption,” he observed.

Highlighting the parallels between this election season and those of 2000, 2008, and 2016, Martin Amidu dismissed the commissionings as election propaganda aimed at shielding the government’s misdeeds.

He stated, “The corrupt and looting government machinery of Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is so power-drunk that they only see the ordinary Ghanaian as a zombified idiot whose vote can be bought after dangling a few television pictures.”

Mr Amidu warned voters to recognize these tactics for what they are—a desperate bid to maintain power.

He called on Ghanaians to reflect on their hardships over the past seven years and reject the continuity of the “create, loot, and share” governance model.