The Kufuor Lodge at Peduase makes pilgrimage easy: it towers above the neighbourhood and faces Osagyefo’s presidential retreat, not in rivalry but harmony.
Call it nature’s nest dangling at the tip of the Aburi mountains. Its serenity befits a retired giant.
But Kufuor’s choice of a retirement home makes him a beneficiary of his own legacy.
The journey to Aburi, once a perilous trip to Paradise, was enlarged and dualised by his Government.
The meandering, hilly landscape now leaves ample room for health walks uphill, bi-pedal rides and pals longing to dialogue with nature.
That way, JAK augmented what nature gifted to Akuapem: serenity, peace and paradise.
Inside the sprawling courtyard, I was soon received by a friendly security detail and attendants.
‘Please come over and walk in; he is having lunch.’
When I hesitated, another pleading voice filtered, ‘simply walk in; he may even invite you to lunch.’
I treaded with caution, but managed to enter the colossal living room and was seated.
The Gentle Giant in his wheelchair soon emerged beaming with smiles.
True to the waiter’s word, JAK instructed his maid to serve me lunch!
‘Oh no,’ I protested, suppressing my appetite ,which had been teased by a toasty aroma billowing from the kitchen.
At 86, J. A Kufuor gracefully rests at Peduase, managing a steady flow of visitors, but also coping with a busy schedule of invitations.
This is perhaps the best time to visit sages: when the local landscape is so heated and sweat trickles down the faces of men in politics.
But I also needed to check how the old man was doing 16 years beyond active politics.
Finally did JAK remember his pet projects with me? Significantly, not all presidents on the continent have ever dreamed gof iving up the throne upon which they squat.
African presidents have made the continent a laughing stock.
Many are virtually at the departure lounge only waiting to crawl across to their Maker.
Indeed, the outcome of elections has been so predictable that, BBC in those days had a standard news item ahead of polls in a neighbouring country: ‘The people of Togo will tomorrow go to the polls to re-elect President Eyadema.’
That was not all. Under the full glare of TV cameras, one president last year publicly pissed in his pants during a march past salute by school children.
Mr President may have forgotten to wear his diapers that morning. Another head of state, virtually bedridden at 92, has been a presidential candidate in a just-ended presidential poll.
He is so fragile that his accomplices, in lieu of producing him on stage, chose to display his statue and effigy only; they indeed stopped short of adding a coffin and death certificate. Having ruled for 43 years, Paul Biya still hopes to have his mandate renewed for another term, which will enable him to celebrate his 99th birthday still on the presidential WC.
Not Ghana, not Kufuor. He refused to join the senility club and quitted after his 8-year term.
It was at the Lagos airport 2015 that I realised the gentle Giant had touched several hearts beyond Ghana.
Nigerian Customs and Immigration officers were full of kind words: ‘How is Kufuor, how is the old man? You people should look after him for us ooo; he is all we have.’
Same year, a driver (call him ‘Osei’) taking me from Kumasi airport to KNUST recalled one humbling incident during Kufuor’s presidency.
His pregnant wife had been admitted at Okomfo Anokye hospital for pre-natal care and delivery. In preparation for her bill, Osei had sold part of his living room items: tv and radio, preparing to pay for hospital expenses.
‘Even though I had money in hand,’ Osei told me, ‘I was told President Kufuor had paid my bills (through his policy on free maternity health care).
‘Wofa, Nyame anim, I broke down in tears!’ he recalled, voice quivering.
This is the man I visited last Tuesday to reminisce the past, and check his plans for the future.
JAK recalled the appointment he gave me as one of the three-member Wuaku Commission, which investigated the Yendi crisis in 2002, and as well his pet project on Legon campus, the Kufuor Foundation edifice whose siting I lobbied Legon to host.
Even though retired from Legon, I had to come down from Michigan on JAK’s invitation in 2012, to facilitate its launch and sod-cutting.
Through that event I had met past South African President Thabo Mbeki, German Chancellor Horst Kohler, President J J Rawlings, and other dignitaries.
But my visit to JAK last week also enabled me to recall one major project in Legon that had long been abandoned, but was restored by JAK.
2005, at the beginning of JAK’s second term, he visited Legon campus to commission his residential projects for students and faculty.
Legon Vice-Chancellor was then away.
As Pro VC representing Legon, I played a little mischief which ended up restoring hope in a virtually abandoned Faculty of Arts project.
At my turn to speak, I sneaked in the pathetic story of the Faculty of Arts building started by Busia government early 1970s but abandoned after his overthrow in 1972.
The building had been abandoned at the foundation stage for 35 years.
As Busia’s political successor, it was in Kufuor’s interest to resume and complete the project to honor his mentor and political tradition.
Seated on the podium that day, JAK looked visibly shaken hearing this, and I saw him whisper in the ears of Elizabeth Ohene, then Minister in charge of Tertiary Education.
At his turn to speak, Kufuor immediately directed that the platform party should walk to the project site near Linguistics, to see things for themselves.
Three weeks thereafter, engineers came to undertake a structural audit, and added Faculty of Arts to JAK’s ongoing projects.
As I write, the new Faculty of Arts Building after intermittent stops and starts, has at last been commissioned and occupied, after more than a half century gestation!!
My Peduase visit last week then provided considerable food for thought, far beyond the aroma I sniffed from the presidential kitchen.
Thanks to timeless warmth and hospitality of the Gentle Giant:
Kufuor, J A Kufuor!
By Kwesi Yankah
