Insensitive President Mahama abandoned us for the land of milk and honey – Sir John

New Patriotic Party General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (aka Sir John) is livid at the decision of President John Mahama to holiday in the United Arab Emirates when according to him, there is fire-on-the-mounting in his beloved Ghana.

Not when the people are suffering, prices of utilities are going up and traders sit with their wares because no one is buying does a president pack bag and baggage to a land where there is milk and honey and abandon his people to their fate.

A statement issued by the presidency on December 23, 2013 said he was taking a short annual leave and that he and his family were travelling to the United Arab Emirates for the Christmas holiday.

But Sir John said “As a president, he ought to be here with his people, especially in these trying moments in our life’s journey, in our political journey. The president should be here with us and to rejoice with us and mourn with us even in these difficult times. But what do we see, the man packs bag and baggage, with his family, goes to Dubai where things are, you know, there is honey and oil, milk flowing, then to enjoy his Christmas festivities while the prices of petrol, utilities have all increased... When market women are crying that their wares are not being bought, there’s no money in the system, the dollar to the cedi rate is so, so high… prices have rocketed, indeed when teachers… some have not received their salaries, doctors are crying, nurses are crying, workers of all walks of life are crying, then you have a president as insensitive as he is, who leaves us, goes out there to enjoy himself while the rest of us suffer. That is my worry.”

He told Nana Agyeman on Radio XYZ Thursday that other presidents would cut short their journeys to attend to crisis at home, but not President Mahama, for he prefers to leave home in times of crisis to enjoy himself and laugh at the people and let the people suffer.

“That is my beef with this president, a president who doesn’t care,… caring is the word, he doesn’t get it, the president has no care for us, he doesn’t even think about whether or not people have eaten, whether or not those in the streets have eaten, and that is the worry.

“A president should care, a president should exude hope for us when people are hopeless, when the ship is rudderless we must help the captain at the helm of affairs who steers clear the ship. This is not the kind of president we have in this country and that is why I am worried for him to have gone. I don’t know who advises him to go but those who did and himself taking that decision have not helped the president.” Click to listen to sir John.