<<Print>>

The Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, has issued a statement hitting back at President John Dramani Mahama for the latter’s comments in reaction to the NPP’s economic wizard, Alhaji Mahamudu, Bawumia’s criticism of the President’s show of gross incompetence in governance.

Whilst describing President Mahama’s comment as a show of desperation and jittery, Nana Akomea dug deeper into archives to bring out similar words the then running mate, John Dramani Mahama used to describe President Kufuor’s government.

“How can any President say that only presidents/former presidents can criticize him? That if you haven't been President before, you can't criticize a president? By extension, you can't criticize an MP because you haven't been an MP before!  You can't criticize the MD of the electricity company because you haven't been in that position before!  Since elections are about  passing judgement,  we need to  assemble all the  presidents in the world to vote in next year's elections,  as the  rest  of us do not have any presidential experience”, Nana Akomea quizzed. 

The communications director recounted that “as director of communications for the NDC between 2001 and 2004, Hon. John Mahama took the lead in criticising President Kufuor in press conference after press conference, on the floor of Parliament and on TV and radio station after station. Apparently, at that time, he had had presidential experience.” 

Again, he noted that in 2008, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, then the running mate to the late Professor John Evans Atta said in Wa, that Ghanaians should not fear changing any incompetent government.
He said, Candidate Mahama told the people of Wa that if a government was unable to meet the development expectations, needs and aspirations of the majority of Ghanaians, the people should not hesitate to change that government for a better one.

Nana Akomea said, candidate Mahama also told the people that the cost of living in the country was high and the people were finding it difficult to make ends meet and urged Ghanaians to turn to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for salvation, so how then does he turn around to hate criticism?

He observed that, as running mate in 2007/8, Hon Mahama constantly described Kufuor's government as incompetent and that President Mahama’s performance  and delivery on benchmarks he set for himself and the nation had been largely woeful; saddled with dumsor, cedi devaluation, the economic deficits, inflation,  national debt, health, sanitation, unemployment, the environment,  transparency and accountability,  and corruption.

INSULTS  

Nana Akomea also wondered how President Mahama could equate an unknown Ghanaian woman's social media post to the political party NPP, and said that “is difficult to understand”, when in time past President Mahama had been subjected to severe criticism from bona-fide and leading members of the NDC including:  former President Rawlings, Gen. Nunoo Mensah, Hon Alban Bagbin, Martin Amidu, and Dr Tony Aidoo, saying “These are the attacks that should engage his attention”.

Under president Mahama’s watch, the NPP communicator indicated that several Ghanaians and segments of society have been subjected to gratuitous insults by NDC government functionaries and communicators. “Talk about teachers, nurses, doctors, civil servants, organized labour, the clergy, political opponents etc. Dr Bawumia was recently described as being a disgrace to his parents, and of having less intelligence than his counterparts at the IMF, all under president Mahama’s watch”. 

NORTHERN PRESIDENT THROUGH NDC

He, more so, described President Mahama’s assertion that he is able to be a president from the north because that opportunity existed in the NDC as not only false but also shows the president resorting to naked tribalism for dubious political gain.

“President Limann is the first northerner to be president of Ghana. And he wasn't NDC. 

President Mahama himself became president because he was vice president at the time of President Mills' death. His Excellency Aliu Mahama was vice president of Ghana from 2001 to 2008. If President Kufuor had become incapacitated during his presidency,  Aliu Mahama would have succeeded  him as president” Akomea noted.

The President’s style of governance  came under heavy criticism by the NPP’s running mate; especially on the economic front,  where he believes President Mahama has failed woefully but the President, at the time when he addressed his party faithfuls in Accra attacked and questioned the right of the NPP’s running mate to pass judgement on his performance saying; “they’ve told all their communicators – anytime you mention Mahama or NDC; say incompetence and so you hear Bawumia and co. saying incompetent Mahama administration… you’ve (Bawumia) never held any responsibility anywhere near presidency before so you don’t know what it’s like to be President” as if to suggest that one can only criticize a president when one has ever been a president before.