Former President John Mahama has said he will soon decide whether or not to contest the flag bearer slot of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He told party supporters in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region during the party’s Unity Walk on Saturday, 5 May that now that the party’s re-organisation going “well” and almost over, he thought it was time to make that announcement.
Should he decide to run, Mr Mahama will be contending with former appointees Sylvester Mensah, Alban Bagbin and Ekwow Spio-Garbrah as well as former SSNIT Board Chair Prof Joshua Alabi, who have all expressed interest in running.
Mr Mahama had always postponed his announcement with reason that a premature declaration will throw the party’s re-organisation programme out of gear.
Meanwhile, Mr Mahama has described the Akufo-Addo-led government as intolerant.
According to him, appointees within government resort to the use of “unprintable” words against him anytime he criticises or suggests measures to deal with any national issue, whereas he welcomed all kinds of insults and criticism during his time as president.
He said: “One of the things you need to be, as a good leader, is the ability to listen and to tolerate criticism. When I was president, I was probably one of the most criticised and insulted president’s but the mark of good leadership is that you maintain your calm and you maintain your focus.
“Unfortunately, it looks like the current people in government cannot take criticism. When you offer any decision, they call you all kinds of unprintable names, but I was not brought up to use unprintable names against my political opponents.
“The language you use in your political discourse is a reflection of your upbringing. If you were brought up well, it must reflect in the language that you use in your political discourse, and, so, you can call me any name. The simple point I made was that we have tried it before, we have gone after these young people with soldiers, it didn’t work, and, so, the best way to go is while you stop them from doing illegal small-scale mining, be working on providing them with alternatives.”
Mr Mahama’s comment was in response to the series of backlash he has received for suggesting that government’s approach to the galamsey fight was wrong.
Mr Mahama, at a similar Unity Walk in Kumasi, had said: “It is a fact that if illegal mining is not controlled, water bodies and farmlands will be destroyed. But as we put a stop to illegal mining, we must apply commonsense and ensure that a livelihood package is in place for the miners.
“The tactics of deploying military men to arrest illegal miners is not the way to go because my government has done it before but it failed. The solution is to bring a new mining [law] that will regulate the activities of the miners”.
Acting General Secretary of the NPP, Mr John Boadu, in response, described him [Mahama] as a desperate politician who would not receive the nod to lead the country again.
The Danquah Institute (DI) accused Mr Mahama of endorsing galamsey.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu called on small-scale miners in the country to ignore Mr Mahama’s criticism since the ex-president is a “conman”.
Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, questioned whether Mr Mahama applied sense in the fight against illegal mining activities during his term of office.
Source: ClassFMonline.com
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JDM please you don’t need to even think about it, there should be no delays Koran, with the massive crowd following you at your supposed Unity Walk, what do you need to think about again? Buddy hwre si mu straightaway na yen ko.
Indecisive conman John Ford Mahama........ decide quick and we will chop your money for you and vote against you...... You are greedy and corrupt conman......
Mahama come we are waiting for You(2020). We go chop your money and vote for NANA AKUFO ADDO.NABCO 700 plus MAHAMA free monies Ghana go be ke ke
This Mahama guy’s next humiliation will even be bigger than the last.
Haha fear has grip some people if he will loose den just rejoice because u need him to come and loose to de old man but de fact is dat he will beat de old man simply because de old man has failed miserably ndc he de old man with all his age result to insult anytime he get opportunity and dat is wat his boys are learning Mr mahama indeed was brought up well by his parents hence de humility he has and his calmness even wen non entities insult him pls he is coming so just be happy but some people are very scared of de existance of Mr mahama why because he is a major threat to de old presidoooo Mr 74 we shall see because de end justifies de means
We know it already. Don't try to keep your supporters in suspense.
you have already started campaigning with your unity walks, uniting one person hahahahaa and the executives are helping you perpetuate this injustice on the other candidates. you dont want stiff opposition so they say no campaigning for now and yet you have been given an unfair platform to campaign. so when will ndc lift the ban on campaigning so the others can also campaign for me my man is bagbin. he is not corrupt and has the track record of delivery
Why are you NPP guys so scared of Mahama? are you afraid he will expose your lies and defeat your clueless Oluman who is destroying Ghana with his family government?
You had already decided to run with your recent behavior and comments. Ghanaians are waiting to humiliate you in 2020 with your record of incompetence listed below: 1. You took a bride from a Burkinabe in the form of a Ford Expedition, and later insulted Ghanaians that you don't like American Cars. 2. You insulted Ashantis in Kumasi with your insinuation that "No matter the beauty of the dance of a chicken, it will always be a victim for the hawk". Even, if you tar the roads in Kumasi, the residents will not vote for you. For that reasons, you neglected the roads in Kumasi with the exception of Asawasi constituency. Kumasi residents and people in Asante region have not changed their mind on you. 3. You called Kyebi as the headquarters of galamsey and supervise the destruction of our water bodies and forests, and have the guts to comment on the fight against this criminal activities, because your brother in involved in mining. 4. You gave 60% of the Nyinahin bauxite deposit to be mined by your brother, and now complaining about current president appointing qualified relatives in government. 5. You spent 6 billion cedis on your 600+ personel and you are now complaining about 110 with 998 personnel at an expenditure of 1.5 billion cedis. 6. Once you make the decision to run, this time there will be no bar on hold. Your moral character which were not scrutinized because, you got to the presidency because of the death of President Professor Atta Mills. This time, it will be dirty, and we Ghanaians will insist to know how many children you have and with how many women. We are waiting for you to bring it on.
WHEN U COME HUNDRED TIMES U GOONA LOOOOOOSE