Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reminded President John Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) that no amount of scurrilous attacks against him will distract him from pursuing his political goals for the country.
He has therefore, vowed to continue to sell the NPP’s ideas to the electorate towards the December 7, general election and help to change Ghana for the better, when he is voted into power.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, in the face of an abysmal record of the John Mahama-led NDC administration which has led to widespread hardship and suffering amongst the people, the only option left for the current regime is to embark on an abusive campaign against him, (Nana), the latest being that he is suffering from cancer.
“The president and those who speak for him are today in a difficult situation in Ghana. They want to have a third term in office. But, instead of telling us about all the things they promised to do, so that we can decide whether or not to grant them the third term (ie, being in office for 12 years), they can’t do that,” he said at a well-attended rally in Bolgatanga.
Vile Propaganda
There has been a frantic attempt of late by the ruling NDC to portray the NPP presidential candidate as a sick man, after attempts to tag him as a divisive character fell flat on their face.
The NDC appears to have contracted the US-based magazine called Africawatch, edited by Steve Mallory (real name, Raymond Poku), to perpetrate the diabolical agenda. The recent copies of the magazine had focused on Nana Akufo-Addo.
In what looks like a calculated plan between the NDC and Steve Mallory, the magazine’s yesterday edition had a publication headlined, “NPP campaign in jeopardy…Akufo-Addo has cancer,” to portray the NPP leader as not fit for the election, even though Nana Addo is on his feet campaigning in the Upper East Region.
NDC’s Sam George, last Friday dropped the hint on radio that the NPP campaign was going to grind to a halt by Monday (yesterday). Sam George, on Asempa FM’s political programme, said boldly, “If you guys know what is coming on Monday, you will run away from Ghana.”
He said in fact, Nana Addo’s campaign would come to a halt from Monday going. “Monday is going to be a bomb,” Sam George boasted, apparently revealing the NDC’s diabolical agenda.
Mahama’s Campaign Tool
During his address in Bolgatanga, Nana Akufo-Addo said, “Issues of life and death and health are in the hands of the Almighty…I will continue to say, ‘The battle is the Lord’s.’
“The president has made me his campaign tool. I am his campaign in Ghana today. I am saying to you, as defeat stares him in the face, the language against me is going to go higher and higher and higher, because it is clear to the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians that on the 7th of December, we are going to say to John Dramani Mahama, ‘Thank you and goodbye.’”
He predicted that the NDC would step up the vile propaganda against him saying, “In the meantime the language against me is going to continue, and I want to recall some of the things they have said.
“First they said I was a drug addict. It didn’t work. They said I was sick. It didn’t work. They said I was too old. It didn’t work. They said I was a hunchback. It didn’t work. They said I was a dwarf. It didn’t work. They said I was in a wheelchair. It didn’t work. They said I am a murderer. It didn’t work. They said I will die in June. It didn’t work. They said I was a dictator. It didn’t work. They said I was intolerant. It didn’t work. They said I was violent. It didn’t work. They said I had a secret agenda to destabilize the country. It didn’t work. Now, they say I have cancer. It will not work.”
Death
He added, “It looks as if the only way the president will get a third term is when I am sick or I am dead. That is the only ground on which he will get his third term. Issues of life, death and health are in the hands of the Almighty. I will leave matters in the hands of the Almighty because I believe, and I continue to say ‘The Battle is the Lord’s.’”
Broken Promises
Cataloguing a litany of President Mahama’s broken promises, Nana Akufo-Addo recounted how the NDC promised a “one time premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme,” and have reneged on this promise, eight years after making it. The NPP flagbearer noted that “not only did this promise not materialize, but they have collapsed the NHIS.”
He continued, “He (President Mahama) told us he was going to build 200 community day senior high schools. According to his finance minister, he has been able to build nine. He told us in 2012 that dumsor will be over by 2013. We are in 2016, and dumsor is still with us in Ghana. President Mahama was here in the North last week, and not once did he speak about SADA, because SADA has become a monumental failure.”
By William Yaw Owusu