EX-President John Mahama
Former President John Dramani Mahama’s penchant to indulge in tribal bigotry resurfaced last Friday when he threw a sarcastic shade against President Akufo-Addo’s tribal grouping, the Akyems.
He said they had been voting for the NPP for many years but they had not been rewarded with the needed development.
He said the President had removed a university campus from Afram Plains and brought it to Akyem; and also said even if the NPP presented a sheep the people were ready to vote for that candidate.
Mr. Mahama made the statements on separate platforms in constituencies such as Suhum, Akwatia, Akyem Tafo and Nkawkaw as part of his four-day Eastern regional tour.
“The NPP is always taking you for granted because they know if they even bring a sheep and cloth it with NPP colours, you will vote for them. So let me tell you, they have taken your votes for granted because they know if they come to power and didn’t do anything for you, you will still vote for them once they bring even a sheep to contest,” Mr. Mahama said at Suhum Main lorry station on Friday.
At Akwatia, he said the NPP had chased out the residents in the area from doing galamsey, and rather given it to party members.
When he got to Akyem-Tafo lorry station, he said the NPP government had sidelined the indigenes of the area by failing to employ them to work at the Cocoa Research Institute and rather employed strangers outside the community to work at the institution.
Big Mistakes
At Somanya, Mr. Mahama told the residents not to repeat the mistake they did in the 2016 polls and vote the NDC back to power.
“God has given us another opportunity to make a choice, in 2016 we made a choice, and I would not say the choice was a mistake, but it was based on the objective conditions of the time. NDC has been in government; we all saw the work the NDC was doing and then we had to make a decision, our colleagues who are the NPP made a lot of big promises and the promises were sweet in the ears of Ghanaians and they created the impression that if we gave them the opportunity they would turn Ghana into a land of milk and honey,” he said.
He continued that, “And so, our people voted for them. We have lived in this country for four years and we all know the conditions under which we are living. Times are hard, people are suffering, people are hungry, the cost of things has become expensive, the economy is collapsing, the debt is growing and everything is going wrong in this country.
“We have an opportunity to make a change and that is through the vote that will take place in December, so let us not make a mistake again, let us not make them deceive us again, they will come and give us little money but don’t forget that when they give you money today, tomorrow it will be finished and then you will live in poverty again and so let us vote for the NDC to come and continue the good work we were doing,” Mahama said.
“Today, we live in a country of family and friends, if you are not part of the family you are not allowed to get any opportunity in this country, but by God’s grace, NDC will come back and make a change,” he added.
He said the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) in Somanya, which was initiated under the NDC government but built and completed by the Akufo-Addo-led NPP administration, was being extended but the President decided to establish its second campus in his home town instead of the initial plan to stage it at Afram Plains.
“It is unfair for him to do that; you don’t know how to establish a university but you can decide where the campus should be. Again, you don’t know how to build institutions but you know how to rename them. You must also build some of the institutions,” he said.
“The current President does not know how to create jobs but he knows how to destroy jobs. His ability to collapse banks, micro finances and others prove he does not know how to get the youth something doing. As I speak there are a lot of graduates who are unemployed in the country and we cannot continue this way, so vote for the NDC to create jobs for the youth,” he concluded.
The ER NPP has said they are going to respond appropriately to the ‘lies’ peddle by the former President.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Akyem Tafo