Former President and flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has said he does not know why President Akufo-Addo and his cohorts keep mentioning his name on any given platform.
He however says the profuse reference to him and his administration by the sitting president and his functionaries do not take anything away from him but only go to making him more popular.
He was answering to a question posed to him by one Obaasima Al’Barka as to why his name was mentioned so many times at the ruling New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Annual Delegates Conference in Accra on Sunday when he hosted a question and answer session on Facebook and YouTube on Monday evening.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t watch and so I wouldn’t know why; but like I said, this is a government that continues to play the blame game, you know, since they took over the office; I believe that as a President and a leader, you must be able to take responsibility”, he said.
He further noted that, “in my time, I was landed with the dumsor not because of anything I had done, but because preceding governments had not put in enough generation on time, so that Ghana’s demand for energy was growing and we had not put in enough generation on time so our demand outstripped supply of energy. I went to Parliament, I said we have analysed the problem, I recognize the problem and I take responsibility and we will solve it; before I left office in 2016, we had excess generation in this country, our power was stable and that is what the president should do; in entering your fourth year you should not be talking about your predecessor, you should be talking about what you can do for your people or what you have done for the people”.
“If you keep looking back and blaming me for anything, that’s fine; you make me more popular and you mention my name many more times for Ghanaians to remember there was once a president who did this for them; and so I didn’t watch the press conference but that’s their problem”, he jabbed.
Mr John Dramani Mahama suffered a humiliating defeat at the 2016 Presidential Election at the hands of the candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP, but his party is fielding him again in 2020 against the same candidate who is already asking for “four more” years in power.
Last evening’s social media encounter and a series of engagements with civil society groups, labour unions, traditional and faith-based organizations are part of his strategy of canvassing the views and inputs of Ghanaians in his manifesto.
.He has vowed to unseat the current president, who beat him by more than one million votes in the last contest.
He however says the profuse reference to him and his administration by the sitting president and his functionaries do not take anything away from him but only go to making him more popular.
He was answering to a question posed to him by one Obaasima Al’Barka as to why his name was mentioned so many times at the ruling New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Annual Delegates Conference in Accra on Sunday when he hosted a question and answer session on Facebook and YouTube on Monday evening.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t watch and so I wouldn’t know why; but like I said, this is a government that continues to play the blame game, you know, since they took over the office; I believe that as a President and a leader, you must be able to take responsibility”, he said.
He further noted that, “in my time, I was landed with the dumsor not because of anything I had done, but because preceding governments had not put in enough generation on time, so that Ghana’s demand for energy was growing and we had not put in enough generation on time so our demand outstripped supply of energy. I went to Parliament, I said we have analysed the problem, I recognize the problem and I take responsibility and we will solve it; before I left office in 2016, we had excess generation in this country, our power was stable and that is what the president should do; in entering your fourth year you should not be talking about your predecessor, you should be talking about what you can do for your people or what you have done for the people”.
“If you keep looking back and blaming me for anything, that’s fine; you make me more popular and you mention my name many more times for Ghanaians to remember there was once a president who did this for them; and so I didn’t watch the press conference but that’s their problem”, he jabbed.
Mr John Dramani Mahama suffered a humiliating defeat at the 2016 Presidential Election at the hands of the candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP, but his party is fielding him again in 2020 against the same candidate who is already asking for “four more” years in power.
Last evening’s social media encounter and a series of engagements with civil society groups, labour unions, traditional and faith-based organizations are part of his strategy of canvassing the views and inputs of Ghanaians in his manifesto.
.He has vowed to unseat the current president, who beat him by more than one million votes in the last contest.