COVID-19: Koku Anyidoho Showers Praise On Prez Akufo-Addo For His Crisis Communication Skills

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Atta-Mills Institute, Koku Anyidoho, has described as a “pleasant communication” the 5th address by His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the COVID-19 to Ghanaians on Sunday, April 5 2020 at the Jubilee House.

The former Director of Communication at the Presidency in the erstwhile late President John Evans Atta-Mills administration showered praises on President Akufo-Addo for exhibiting the three "p's" in crisis communication skills in his address to Ghanaians with regards to the update on COVID-19.

For me, as a crisis communications expert, my take so far is that in terms of communication, H. E President Akufo-Addo has communicated pleasantly well on this COVID-19. In fact, when it comes to crisis communication we have three basic principles, namely Pity, Praise and Promise and the President used the principles very well,” he commended.

Analyzing the contents of the speech in an interview on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Koku Anyidoho, who revealed he would have crafted a similar speech for the President's address, also added that it is clear from the onset of the pandemic that the President has not been speaking out of a vacuum.

In every crisis communication strategy, you pity, praise and promise and I think that yesterday, from the beginning to the end if I was the one writing the speech for the President, as I did for the late President Mills in so many instances, I would have used the same ingredient of crisis communication...

The President has been engaging in stakeholder consultation when the COVID-19 started in the country; the President did not rush to come out to speak but rather he called on the health workers and the frontline workers including the military, the police and the security agencies, the clergy and the media. At all times, it is obvious that H.E President Akufo-Addo has been doing serious consultations,” he pinpointed.

Citing the mandatory quarantine as a very good decision of the President, Koku Anyidoho mentioned that President Akufo-Addo could not have taken that decision alone as his initial decision for the people who had travelled outside to do voluntary quarantine could not have provided the needed results.

When you look at the mandatory quarantine, initially when it started, we said we should do voluntary quarantine within a matter of days, they realised that the people will not do the voluntary quarantine and so we should do mandatory and see the outcome of the mandatory quarantine . . it means that the decision that was taken by the President based on stakeholder analysis and consultation has worked,” he averred.