Akufo-Addo's COVID Lockdowns Were Painful but Necessary, Says Former Legal Counsel Kow Essuman

Kow Essuman, who served as legal counsel to former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has come out to defend the restrictions imposed during Ghana's COVID-19 response, arguing that the former president showed genuine leadership by making difficult choices at a time of national crisis. Speaking in an interview on JoyNews with Gemma Appiah, Essuman acknowledged the real suffering the lockdowns caused but maintained that inaction would have been far more dangerous.

The human cost Essuman admits the lockdowns imposed

Rather than brushing aside criticism of the restrictions, Essuman was candid about the burden they placed on ordinary Ghanaians — particularly those in rural communities and the informal sector. He noted that for many people outside major cities, daily life revolves around shared spaces: chop bars, community bathrooms, local pits and bars that double as social hubs.

"Someone sitting somewhere in a rural area, the only source of entertainment is to go and sit at a pit or bar or at a chop bar or something like that. Locking them down prevents them from having access to food. They don't have refrigerators. Some use communal bathrooms and so on and so forth," he said.

His remarks touched on a reality that often gets lost in top-level policy discussions — that lockdown measures designed with urban, middle-class households in mind can be deeply disruptive, even dangerous, for Ghanaians who lack the infrastructure to stay at home comfortably. No refrigerator means no stockpiling food. No private bathroom means communal facilities become unavailable. No formal employment means no income the moment movement is restricted.

Why it matters for Ghana

Ghana was among the first African countries to implement a partial lockdown in response to COVID-19, with President Akufo-Addo announcing restrictions on movement in Accra, Kumasi and surrounding areas in April 2020. The measures were eventually lifted after about three weeks, partly due to concerns about the economic impact on vulnerable populations — the very concerns Essuman raised in his interview.

The COVID-19 period also coincided with a sharp rise in Ghana's public debt, as the government ramped up spending on health infrastructure, social interventions and economic stimulus packages. Critics of the Akufo-Addo administration have long argued that fiscal decisions made during and after the pandemic contributed to the economic crisis that led Ghana to seek an IMF bailout in 2023. Essuman, however, turned that argument on its head, suggesting the tough calls made during that period are part of what has set Ghana on a path to recovery.

"He said it himself before that it was a painful period of his administration because the decision that you're taking would have an effect on the people. But it's like medicine. If you don't swallow it, you can't get better," Essuman said, drawing on what he described as the former president's own reflection on the matter.

Whether one agrees with that framing or not, the debate matters because it touches on how Ghana evaluates its recent past — and what lessons policymakers take into the next crisis.

Leadership under fire: a defence of Akufo-Addo's second term

Essuman's remarks are not just a defence of the COVID lockdowns in isolation. He appeared to be making a broader argument about the character of Akufo-Addo's second term, which was marked by economic turbulence, the collapse of the cedi, and the country's worst debt crisis in a generation. His position is that unpopular decisions, made with long-term outcomes in mind, are a hallmark of leadership rather than evidence of failure.

That is a contested view. Many Ghanaians continue to hold the former administration responsible for the economic hardship they experienced in recent years. But as Ghana moves forward under the new Mahama government, the conversation about what went wrong — and what, if anything, went right — during the Akufo-Addo years is likely to remain politically charged for some time to come.