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21.10.2016 Headlines

MAHAMA BEGS NANA FOR DEBATE … After running away from IEA but Akomea advises NPP to ignore the call

By Ghanaian Chronicle
MAHAMA BEGS  NANA FOR  DEBATE   After running away from IEA but Akomea advises NPP to ignore the call
21.10.2016 LISTEN

By Pascal KafuAbotsi
([email protected])
The Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has launched a vigorous campaign for the party’s flag bearer, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, to reject the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) invitation for a debate with President John Dramani Mahama.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Nana Akomea could not trace the sudden u-turn of the NDC presidential candidate to make way for such a platform, barely two months to a crucial election, after he had snubbed an earlier opportunity offered to his party by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

“Now just about one month to the election, who has advised President Mahama to come looking for a debate?” he quizzed and further suggesting that “…if Nana Addo asks for my advice, l will tell him to ignore President Mahama’s call and concentrate on what he is doing so well right now.”

In May, this year, the IEA announced that it was considering the idea of holding two separate debates for the two leading political parties – the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), a proposal many believed, was the product of President Mahama's own open declaration to debate Nana Akufo Addo on any day, in order to parry arguments and figures on the outlook of the economy he presented to Ghanaians.

“I'm willing to debate Nana Akufo-Addo any day, even if you call him today, I will put it here and start debating the issues. So I don't have a problem with debating Nana Addo,” he said in an interview on TV3, in March this year.

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“He [Nana Addo] has made a lot of contentious statements that I would have wished that you had him here so that we would debate those issues,” he added.

But the NDC later opted out of the debate, which according to its National Organiser, Mr. Kofi Adams, was due to the failure of the IEA to consult the party before the announcement. “IEA cannot just announce a programme it has not engaged the party on,” he said.

But political analysts had argued that the NDC deliberately refused to be part of the presidential debate due to the barrage of corruption allegations it is encircled with, including Manasseh Azure’s Ford Expedition expose’, the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Waterville, STX Housing deal and the Smarttys bus branding scandals.

This year, the public had been given the opportunity to forward questions to the IEA, and the questions to hit the think tank, analysts anticipated, would be corruption-related, which the ruling government was making efforts to avoid.

For Nana Akomea, by his action, the president had destroyed the essence of the IEA platform, which had served useful purposes to presidential candidates in the country since the year 2000.

Besides, Nana Akomea bashed the President for claiming there were certain cabals in the media blocking the people of Ghana from accessing his so-called transformational agenda, saying that the excuse from him clearly showed that: “President Mahama is indeed cut off from the daily reality of the Ghanaian people.”

According to a report in the Finder Newspaper of Wednesday, President Mahama granted an interview to Nigerian-owned Ovation Magazine in Accra, and complained that a certain group of people had taken over the control of the media in Ghana, and were blocking his government's message, a situation, which, in his view, made it difficult for the people to know the truth.

“It is populism; a certain group has taken control of the media in Ghana, and it makes it difficult for the people to discern the truth.

“So, as much as you are putting out the information, it is either being blocked or distorted,” he complained.

But in a statement signed and issued yesterday, the NPP Communications Director argued that President Mahama should be the last person to complain about media space having dominated various platforms over the years.

“His series of campaign tours, including the Changing Lives tours parts 1 and 2, Accounting to the people tours parts 1 and 2, and helicopter campaign tour and current campaign tour are all covered by major and minor media, across the country,” he recalled, adding that “Stations including Radio Gold and Muntie FM plus their affiliates devote programming exclusively to publicise the cause and agenda of president Mahama.”

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According to him, a recent survey found that President Mahama vastly dominated coverage in the state owned media, such as the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times.

That notwithstanding, he noted that “President Mahama's giant and well lit dumsor proof billboards showcasing his agenda dominate billboard advertising in Ghana today.

“The last six months have seen multiple television advertising across the country, showcasing how president Mahama’s deeds have brought ‘aburokyire to Ghana’.”

Apart from the Daily Graphic, regularly devoting its prime pages to advertise his deeds, Nana Akomea also observed that a half dozen of NDC inclined private newspapers devoted tons of ink on a daily basis to promote the works and agenda of President Mahama.

“President Mahama's image and message dominates space on even public buses at great state expense. There is a vast array of well resourced communicators at the Flagstaff House, the Ministry of Communications and NDC headquarters who on a daily basis, engage the media to showcase President Mahama’s agenda,” he charged.

With these, he was, therefore, emphatic that the president’s problem was not with the media but that his “message of transformation is not resonating because it does not accord with the reality of the situation Ghanaians face today,” the NPP bigwig emphasised.

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“Despite whatever agenda is put forth by president Mahama, Ghanaians today are greatly appalled at the worsening unemployment, the vast loss in their purchasing power, the unbearable cost of living today, the bare faced corruption and wanton waste of taxpayers’ monies,” he pointed out and also hinted that: “The more President Mahama touts achievements and transformation, the more the real situation of the Ghanaian worsens.”

 

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