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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged Ghanaians to retain the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in government in light of its sterling performance over the last three- and-a- half years. 

Former President Mahama is seeking a second term in office after losing in 2016, and will lock horns with President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the third consecutive time when the nation goes to polls on December 7.

According to him, it was important for Ghanaians to reject former President John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC), since they had nothing more to offer the nation.

Addressing party supporters at the NPP manifesto launch at Cape Coast over the weekend, President Akufo-Addo described the eight year rule of the NDC, with Mr Mahama as Vice President from 2009 to 2012 and as President from 2012 to 2017 as “disastrous.”
 
“I know that the NDC Presidential Candidate, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama believes and says often that Ghanaians have a short memory. And he must hold strongly to his beliefs, otherwise, I doubt he would have summoned the courage to be seeking another term after the disaster that was his presidency.”
 
“Ghanaians might have short memories, but not short enough for us to have forgotten the broken-down freezers, irons and other household equipment, thanks to the five years of ‘dumsor’. Our memories are not short enough to forget that the economy, under him, was such a wreck that there was a ban placed on all recruitment into our public service.”
 
“Our memories are not short enough to forget that teachers taught for three years and were only paid for three months. Our memories are certainly not short to forget that he brought our entire financial services system to near collapse,” he said.
 
President Akufo-Addo said he took pride in the fact that he had been able to implement free Senior High School (SHS) and TVET, and that parents and guardians would no longer force their wards to stop school at Junior High School level due to financial difficulties.
 
He said Ghanaians had no reason to believe the NDC’s recent position in support of free SHS, adding that members of the party, in their eight year rule, rubbished the idea of a free SHS and indicated that it would destroy the country’s educational system if implemented.
 
“When they were in office, they had a hard time trying to run even their watered-down version of their so-called progressively free education. Then the former president said he would review it and now we hear him say that it has come to stay” he said.
 
The President said Mr Mahama had no credibility in his new position on the free SHS and urged Ghanaians not to entrust the future of the country’s children in the hands of the former president who, in eight years in office as Vice President and later President, made no effort to implement it.
 
In the same way, he said the country’s agriculture could not be entrusted in the hands of the former President because he left farmers on their own, without any support to make their business as profitable and fulfilling as it should be.
 
President Akufo-Addo said even in times of crises, his administration had managed to pay the 6 months water bills of all Ghanaians, subsidized electricity for all Ghanaians for three months, and provided hot meal daily to all JHS 3 students who are going to write their exam in the midst of the pandemic.
 
“We thank God that the pandemic did not strike under his presidency, when there was no money in the national kitty to pay teachers’ and nurses’ allowances,” he said.
 
While urging Ghanaians to give him an overwhelming endorsement on December 7, to enable his government to continue the good work, President Akufo-Addo pledged to ensure that the upcoming election would be conducted in an atmosphere of peace and stability.