I'm Not Pleased With Prez Mahama At All, His Handlers Must Advise Him - Pratt

Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, has implicitly accused President John Mahama of following the band wagon and creating problems for himself.

Mr. Pratt, speaking on 'Kokrokoo' on Peace FM, noted that the president nowadays is behaving like everyone else.

He wondered why the President has adopted an offensive approach in his public addresses.

He doesn’t have to try to be like anybody else. Just be himself and that will be fine for him politically. I don’t think he’s being himself. I don’t think he’s being himself at all. The President is not being himself and I think that’s a problem."

He however blamed the President's handlers for this change in character.

According to him, the handlers should ensure that the President undergoes thorough preparation before making any public address.

To him, it appears the handlers have failed to execute their duties effectively, hence President Mahama describing his political rivals' press conference as "rabbit" and their National Chairman as "Opana".

"It’s a problem for his handlers and so on...For any such persons speaking, whether it is at a rally or whatever; there should be adequate preparation. Adequate preparation will minimize such things.


Communicators' Job

The seasoned journalist also implored the president to engage his Ministers and government Communicators to speak on his behalf and should not be seen responding to every issue that his political rivals raises.

Commenting on the President's recent remarks that the only people who have the right to criticize him as being "incompetent" are former Presidents Kufour and Rawlings; Kwesi Pratt questioned the duties of the government communicators.

To him, President Mahama should be concentrating on addressing national issues.

For a President to talk anywhere, it has to be about policy issues. The President has Ministers and Communicators. There are issues which should be handled by Ministers or Communicators. His people must advise him. Certain utterances should not be made by him, even if he wants to say them," he added.

Also speaking on Kokrokoo, Member of Parliament for Lawra Anthony Karbo urged the President to mindful of his words when addressing Ghanaians at any public function.

He is a gentleman, the number one. He shouldn’t speak in a certain way," he counseled.