Former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor has subtly taken a jab at former President John Dramani Mahama over his recent election 2024 “Do or Die” comment.
Dr. Duffuor in a Facebook post on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, at about 3pm challenged Mahama in his call to war comment saying “This is the time for peace and cooperation, not for violence and divisiveness”.
He explained that “Leadership is not about ego or even Election Day, but putting the health, prosperity, and safety of Ghanaians first every single day, all year round”.
He said, “Our children are hungry, our people are hurting, let’s not resort to conflict but come together for the betterment of all”.
He continued “When the country wins, its leader wins, and the success of the weakest among us should be the only priority for the strongest among us”.
Concluding, the former Finance Minister under President Atta Mills noted “This cannot be achieved through harsh words, violence, or politicking, but through peace, humility, and hard work. In these times of great uncertainty, it is important to remember that words matter and carry great weight! May we all put Ghana first, and remember that party colors will never trump the unity of red, yellow, and green”.
Mr Mahama in an interview on pro-NDC Akina Radio in Techiman in the Bono East region on Tuesday as part of his ‘thank you’ campaign to that region stated 2024 elections will be won or lost at the polling station. “The polling station will be do or die affair. I haven’t said all die be die, it will be do or die at the polling station, in 2024 that is where we will win the election”.
He said “We will be doing everything to ensure that the election is free and fair. We don’t want to cheat the NPP and we also don’t want them to cheat us. We just want the will of the people to prevail”.
However, the statement caused uproar with a section of Ghanaians calling on him to retract and apologise.
Justifying the offensive a day after in another radio interview, John Mahama said his threatening comment of “do or die” was just an idiomatic expression.
Speaking on Sunyani-based Moonlite FM on Wednesday, he said he was taken out of context and would not retract his comment.
Mr. Mahama explained that “… They don’t understand do or die. Do or die is an English idiom. In Africa, we have many proverbs and we sometimes don’t say things in the straight format, we use proverbs. In English, we have idiomatic expressions”.
“Those who left school early don’t understand idiomatic expressions. Do or die means a critical assignment you have and so you must do the needful or perish”.
He added: “What I mean is that the NDC should not wait and go back to the Supreme Court, whatever has to be done at the polling stations and collation centres must be done. And so I don’t retract, the next election for NDC is going to be a do or die affair.
“I’m telling all our party executives that you must be at the polling station to make sure that the right thing is done. Don’t abdicate your responsibility at that level and expect that after somebody has stolen the election we’ll go to Supreme Court to see if they would overturn the election for us, they won’t do it,” he said.
BY Daniel Bampoe