Akwasi Addai Odike pledges to be the first to back a coup

• Aug 3, 2023

Akwasi Addai Odike, the founder and leader of the United Progressive Party, has expressed his support for the military potentially taking over the leadership in Ghana.

In a Kofi TV interview aired on August 2, 2023, Odike asserted that Ghana is currently living under a dictatorship worse than any of the military regimes the country has experienced in the past, under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government.

According to Odike, the country is being ruined to the extent that even the Volta Lake, the only remaining clean water body, is now being affected by illegal small-scale mining (galamsey), with other major water bodies like Ankobra, Pra, and Offin having also been destroyed.

In his own words in Twi, he stated, “Ehh! Kofi, if there is a coup today, we would support it. I’m saying that if a soldier pulls out a gun today, I would be the first person to support it.”

Odike accused the Akufo-Addo government of going after people and destroying their businesses, likening it to actions typical of military dictatorships. He questioned the democratic nature of the government, criticizing the president for surrounding himself with family members and making decisions unilaterally, such as the controversial decision to build a cathedral without regard for the wishes of the 31 million Ghanaians.

In summary, Odike expressed his strong discontent with the current government’s leadership and suggested that a military intervention might be a potential solution to what he perceives as Ghana’s deteriorating state under President Akufo-Addo’s administration.