Mahama biggest threat to Ghana’s future says Akufo-Addo

The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said the continued stay in office of President Mahama poses the biggest threat to the future of Ghanaians.

According to Nana Akufo-Addo, President Mahama’s tenure in ‘high office’ over the last eight years, first as Vice President for four years and President for another four, has been characterised by the politics of deception and propaganda, massive levels of unemployment, despondency, rising cost of living, and severe hardships and suffering among the citizenry.

He was addressing a rally at Mallam junction in the Weija/Gbawe Constituency at the campaign launch of the NPP’s parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Tina Mensah, on Sunday, October 2, 2016. 

According to a statement from the party, Nana Akufo-Addo declared, “we need a new kind of politics in Ghana; a politics based on principle, on policy and on direction for the Ghanaian people. That’s the politics we need, and not the politics of deception.”

The NPP flag bearer further pointed out that “John Dramani Mahama is the biggest threat to the future of our nation, and we have to work hard between now and December to kick him out of office.”

His comments, according to the statement, were premised on recent comments made by President Mahama who, in the wake of Moody’s upgrade of Ghana’s credit ratings, stated that “everybody recognises that Ghana is rising and Ghana is doing well.”

“I have said this before and I want to repeat it. Is President Mahama living in Ghana with us, or, perhaps, he lives in a different country? Has he given jobs to the thousands of jobless young men and women in the country? Has he revived the large numbers of companies which have collapsed under his tenure? Are parents now able to pay the high school fees of their children? Has he resuscitated the collapsed National Health Insurance Scheme?” Akufo-Addo asked the gathering. 

Touching on Moody’s rating, the NPP   flag bearer wondered: “Did the Moody’s rating take into account the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of youth who have no jobs? Have they taken into account the massive and unprecedented levels of unemployment, for which President Mahama says Ghana is doing well? We beg him (President Mahama). If he is coming to the end of his term of office, Ghanaians are urging him not to say things that will further anger them.” 

Be wary of unprincipled politics

With two months to the December 7 polls, Nana Akufo-Addo urged Ghanaians to be wary and not to entertain the “unprincipled politics” of President Mahama which will be waged fiercely in the coming days. 

The NPP flag bearer recounted how, over the last four years, the NPP had advocated the restoration of the scrapped nursing and teacher trainee allowances, with the solemn pledge that when voted into office, an Akufo-Addo government will restore these allowances in full.