The integrity challenged government of Muhammadu Buhari after days of bare-faced denials, last week approved the release of $75
million to the presidential campaign of Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP candidate, with the aim of installing him as the new president of Ghana.
Akufo-Addo and Gen Muhammadu Buhari are all aged 72, when running for their presidential campaign on the message of “Change”, and an opportunity for Buhari square even with Ghana’s president who has poor relationship with him..
President Buhari’s systematic interference in Ghana’s presidential election was executed by a special delegation from Nigeria led by Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai who arrived Ghana days before the election under the guise of being an “election observer”.
Governor El-Rufai, according to first-hand sources, is lodged at the Movenpick Hotel Accra, displayed more than passing interest in the Ghanaian presidential polls. He propagated the campaign message of the leading opposition candidate in the poll, and also joined in unofficially announcing that Akufo-Addo had won the elections long before the results were declared. “I can tell you for free that this election has been largely a Nigerian election,” a reliable source told our correspondent in Accra.
A lot of Ghanaians are happy that they have had the chance to elect a new president but in actual fact, Akufo-Addo, the new president-elect of may have lost this election but for the last minute cash bailout by President Buhari.
It is an open secret in Ghana that Akufo-Addo’s party, the NPP has suffered a protracted cash crisis owing to the exit of their party from power within the last eight years. “The cash crunch was affecting their campaigns seriously until the bailout from Buhari.
This helped a great deal in election day mobilization of voters, hiring of buses from Accra to different parts of the country to convey voters to their hometowns where they are registered to vote amongst other logistic concerns.
This is an unprecedented interference in the politics of another nation that could have serious diplomatic implications between Nigeria and Ghana.
Both countries have enjoyed a good relationship for years but this is one step that the Nigerian government under Buhari has taken too far,” the source, who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity said.
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