Martin Kpebu, a renowned lawyer, has intimated that the average person could not gather the courage to speak during President William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s era.
He has accused the former President of instilling a culture of silence, something he says festered to the point where it took people like him, with extra courage, to speak about the ills of the administration.
Speaking on TV3 Wednesday, October 15, 2025, he said the fact that the average citizen lacked the guts to speak at the time is a situation he believes is not a tenet of a polity that values free speech.
“The spirits are different. When I say the spirits are different, I’m a man of courage, extra courage. But the average man didn’t find that space. It took people with extraordinary courage, and that’s not freedom of speech. There was a culture of silence. It’s when the average man can speak, then you can say yes, there is freedom of speech,” he said in a telephone interview on the BigIssue segment on NewDay.
He cited Ghana’s poor World Press Freedom rankings as evidence, with 2018 being a notable exception when the country topped the African rankings.
Mr. Kpebu explained further that the fact that it took someone like Dr. Samuel Essuon Jonah, Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital, to intervene at a point shows how bad the situation was.
During the interview, he said “the matter speaks for itself” when asked if the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration ran a culture of silence.
“It’s the NPP that has to come and explain. It was obvious that we were living in a culture of silence and you remember even Sam Jonah had to come in. When the culture of silence was getting to its peak, Sam Jonah had to come in it erupted another round of discussions and debates. He delivered a speech and says he sees the return of the culture of silence. And generally, a lot of people spoke up,” he pointed out.
The lawyer further indicated that Akufo-Addo’s record, compared to his predecessors, was nothing to write home about, but for the 2018 ranking where the globe celebrated the day in Ghana.
“So there was a culture of silence, and if you want to be scientific, earlier, as far as I can remember, for the 8 years Akufo-Addo was in government, it’s only one year that he did well compared to the previous J.E.A. Mills and John Mahama administration.”
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