�President Mahama Is Competing With Serial Callers�

A Legal Practitoner and member of the Communication Team of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Yaw Osei, says President Mahama�s penchant for responding to public criticisms at the least opportunity is almost becoming akin to a serial caller. Nana Yaw Osei says the President spends more time probably responding to his critics, than he spends working to save the country�s economy. �It is amazing how President Mahama always takes delight in taunting Ghanaians who are critical of his administration, anytime he finds the opportunity to address the country. From the church to public gatherings, President Mahama will always find [a] reason to cast insinuations and aspersions on his critics,� the former Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) asserted. According to the NPP youth activist, the President�s obsession to criticisms, and his habit to react, usually in vituperative style, creates an impression of that of a serial caller. The Kumasi-based legal practitioner opined that the President, despite being touted as an expert in communication, seems to be getting things wrong, in terms of his public utterances, creating problems eventually for his government and the party. Speaking on Angel FM in Kumasi, the NPP communicator contended that President Mahama�s unjustifiable attempts to use the media to portray a good image of his administration and the NDC, in the face of glaring evidence of incompetence, leading to untold hardships on Ghanaians, eventually ends up complicating matters and confusing many Ghanaians. He noted that there is no doubt President Mahama is being overwhelmed by the many socio-economic challenges which his administration, through their recklessness and insensitivity, have brought upon Ghanaians. �That President Mahama has lost track and cannot get things done is not in doubt; it is no longer [a] secret that the President and his administration are no longer in control of affairs, and this is probably why he goes about reacting to every single criticism of his administration,� he emphasised. Nana Yaw Osei cited specifically, the current power outages, popularly known as �Dum so�, and referred to the President�s statement during the official commissioning of the first phase of the Bui Dam project, where chastised some Ghanaians for failing to appreciate his government�s efforts at bringing to an end the erratic power supply. The former GJA Chairman stated that he finds it extremely difficult to reconcile the President�s utterances, at that time, when he insinuated that Ghanaians should change the �Me ma mo Dum so� slogan to �Me ma mo kanea oo�, to the current situation prevailing in the country, with respect to the supply of energy. �As we are talking now, the dum so has become worse; people are sleeping in darkness day in and day out, not to talk about the huge effects on businesses and the economy, what will the President say now?� he retorted. The NPP communication member, therefore, said the earlier the President took steps to address the myriad of economic challenges confronting the country and refrain from resorting to the media to attack his opponents, the better it would be for the development of the country.