Mahama condemns Bawumia, NPP over 'incompetent' tag

President John Dramani Mahama has condemned what he said were attempts by members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to portray him as incompetent.

In an unusually caustic speech at a gathering of party supporters in Accra to mark the end of NDC's ‘Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana’ tour on Monday, the President lambasted leaders of NPP, saying they did not know what it meant to be President.

Singling out Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for criticism, President Mahama said the running mate to the party’s flagbearer had not held any position or undertaken any responsibility that came close to the work of the President, yet he always saw the need to call him incompetent.

He said he would not mind if former President Jerry Rawlings or President John Kufuour called him incompetent, but would not accept that from people like Dr Bawumia.

President Mahama said: “All of you guys have never ever come near the Presidency before. You know what it means to be President? And you stand and say ‘incompetent Mahama administration’, 'Incompetent Mahama administration'. What do you know about competence?

"All of them in the offices they occupy, they should show us what competence they display."

He accused the NPP of instructing their supporters to tag him as incompetent in the hope that the tag would stick, saying: “My competence is not for them to judge, it is for the people of Ghana to judge, and I know that come 7 Novermber 2016, the people of Ghana will judge my competence and they will give me another victory by the grace of the almighty God”

The President also condemned what he said were “useless insults” directed at him by members of the opposition.

Listen to the audio:

{mp3}jdm_bawumia_incompetence{/mp3}