The 2012 presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, paid surprise visits to Ghanaian-owned businesses in South London on Saturday to interact with proprietors and customers. His visits which took him to Brixton Market and Peckham Market, both in South London, took a form similar to the nationwide ‘Listening Campaign’ he is scheduled to undertake in Ghana, beginning with the Ashanti Region in the first week of July. Though meant to be a low key event to give him firsthand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing those who export and retail Ghanaian products to the United Kingdom, the famous Electric Avenue in Brixton and the Peckham High Road turned festive by the visit of opposition leader from Ghana. Visibly overwhelmed and excited by the unexpected presence of Nana Addo, Ghanaian shoppers and others turned the shopping streets into a carnival, to the pleasant approval of onlookers. Nana Addo’s first point of call was the famous Kumasi Market in Peckham, which deals in a wide range of African-Caribbean foodstuffs and beauty products. As soon as Nana Addo made his way into the shop, one female shopper described the day as one she will never forget in her life because a Ghanaian politician had taken time to visit them. Swathes of shoppers mobbed the NPP flagbearer, all wanting to catch a glimpse of him, shake his hands, as well as take photographs with him. Ghanaians, in their interaction with Nana Addo, expressed concern about the state of affairs in the country which to them did not augur well for the development of the nation. According to them, feedback they get from home on a regular basis indicates that the cost of living in Ghana was getting higher and higher by the day resulting in a worsening standard of living for their relatives, who are having to depend more and more on them, even though some of the Ghanaian immigrants in the UK have been hard hit by the economic crisis. The owner of Kumasi Market, in particular, complained about the crippling cost of exporting stuff from Ghana, with duties and charges having gone up. This in her opinion was gradually driving her out of business and implored with the NPP flagbearer to “do something about it when you become President in 2013”. In Brixton, David Tetteh, the man in charge of the Nyame Bekyere Mini Market, also lamented the cost of freight from Ghana, which is making small entrepreneurs like him less competitive. He also told the NPP flagbearer that the British authorities must also be spoken to since they have placed a ban on the import of several items from Ghana like Milo, Cerelac, and dried fish and bushmeat. “We are begging you the politicians to let the authorities here understand that this is our food. This is what we were brought up on and we sell it to our people and they should allow us to do so. It hasn’t killed our people at home and would surely not kill us here.” The small retailers also complained about the importation of Ghanaian stuff, like yam, taken over by large Asian firms. “Nowadays, we have to buy from the Asians here to sell it to the Ghanaians here,” one female retailer said. At Peckham, one of the major Ghanaian communities in the UK, Nana Addo visited “Agoro Be Sor”, a Ghanaian restaurant. A stunned waitress nearly dropped the food ordered by a customer. News of Nana Addo’s visit to the restaurant soon spread, as elated Ghanaians stormed the building, forcing security men into action. At the restaurant, Nana Addo was treated to a bowl of Banku and Tilapia, to which he did absolute justice.