Okudzeto Ablakwa exposes Akufo-Addo's secret deal to hand over Du Bois Centre for 50 years

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North Tongu lawmaker, Honorable Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has exposed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s secret deal to hand over Du Bois Centre for 50 years.

The Member of Parliament (MP) backed his exposé with valid documents in order to work the case.

Full revelation from the MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

Our State Capture lenses continue to keenly monitor developments on the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia scungy agreement to hand over Ghana’s famed W.E.B. Du Bois Centre to a private foundation for 50 years.

Latest intercepted documents unveil a great deal of confusion within government, and an alarming lack of due diligence.

President Akufo-Addo has written to the privately owned W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation to confirm his participation in a 27th August, 2024 sod cutting ceremony at the Du Bois Centre which will formally transfer our iconic Du Bois Centre to the President’s preferred SPV for 50 years.

In confirming his participation for the sod cutting, President Akufo-Addo is not the least bothered that the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation has not met the Conditions Precedent under the infamous lopsided 50-year agreement?

Whereas President Akufo-Addo is eager to finalize the 50-year hand over of the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre by hurriedly confirming his participation through a 6th May, 2024 letter signed by his secretary, Nana Bediatuo Asante, which was addressed to the Board Chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation, Mr. Daniel Rose (copy attached); the President’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is frantically sounding alarm bells.

Chief Director of the Tourism Ministry, John Yao Agbeko wrote only last week (July 8, 2024) to the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation warning that if they do not show evidence of availability of funds amounting to US$13million in a Ghana account, evidence of funds to pay salaries of staff at the Du Bois Centre and a Performance Bond issued by an internationally recognized bank, the Ministry would not hand over the site to them (intercepted letter duly attached).

So we now have a bizarre situation where the President has given full blessings to his latest State Capture scheme, promising to attend the launch, even though his own Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is cautioning against proceeding with the 50-year transaction.

27th August, 2024 promises to be an exceedingly eventful day.

It is instructive to observe that the Ministry of Tourism’s July 8, 2024 letter demanding proof of funds raises fundamental questions about the nature of due diligence carried out before the agreement was signed last year. Fair to also ask, would this have been the outcome if this transaction was transparent, presented to Parliament and subjected to an open competitive procurement process?

It has also emerged that President Akufo-Addo’s pet architect, David Adjaye, has predictably been selected as the ordained architect to redesign the Du Bois Centre as part of the 50-year takeover.

Adjaye appears happy to list this project on his website as he confirms another insider-deal without competitive procurement.

The modus operandi is clearer now, if you want to be favored at the highest level under this Akufo-Addo/Bawumia regime, and be invited to the create, loot and share party, make sure you are ready to partner with David Adjaye.

David Adjaye has been central in the sleazy US$450million Akufo-Addo’s Cathedral project, the dubiously inflated US$222.8million Bank of Ghana Headquarters project, Agenda 111 hospitals project, Marine Drive Project, Trade Fair project, W.E.B. Du Bois Centre 50-year takeover, and all the others. You can be sure of full iron-clad presidential support once you have David Adjaye in your corner.

But the day of reckoning is fast approaching.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to my parliamentary questioning of the Ministers who were asked to sign this rip-off, unpatriotic and anti-Pan-Africanist 50-year sweetheart agreement.

I have absolutely no doubt that with our ever expanding Anti-State Capture Coalition, we shall surely defeat the canker of State Capture and rescue our beloved country.

We would be victorious, again!

For God and Country.

Ghana First 🇬🇭