For years, Dr. Arthur Kennedy has maintained a remarkably persistent public criticism of Nana Akufo-Addo. This is not a recent development or a reaction to the former president’s time in office.
His disagreements with Akufo-Addo go back well over a decade, including the bitter internal battles within the NPP before the 2016 election. Contemporary reports from 2014 and 2015 documented Kennedy’s repeated public attacks on Akufo-Addo’s leadership.
That history makes his latest intervention particularly striking. In October 2026, Kennedy again called for Akufo-Addo to be sidelined as a public face of the NPP, describing him as a “bad president” while acknowledging that he considered him a “fine man.”
At some point, however, even the most persistent political disagreement invites a legitimate question: what exactly explains the extraordinary intensity of this animosity?
One sometimes wonders whether Akufo-Addo took something from Arthur Kennedy that was more precious than a political position. Did he steal his birthright? Did he take something so deeply personal that, years later, every opportunity must still be used to settle the score?
Of course, political disagreement is perfectly legitimate. Kennedy is entitled to his assessment of Akufo-Addo’s presidency, just as others are entitled to disagree with him. In fact, some of his criticisms concern substantive issues, governance, corruption, party discipline and institutional accountability, and those can be debated on their merits.
However, there is a difference between holding a former president accountable and appearing to make that former president the permanent centrepiece of one’s political commentary.
What is particularly curious is that Kennedy was once a senior figure within the NPP himself. He served as the party’s Communications Director for the 2008 presidential campaign and has had a long history within the party. That makes his sustained focus on Akufo-Addo all the more intriguing.
