Trickery Mahama Seeking To Be NDC Flagbearer Again

Deputy Minister of Information, Pius Hadzide, has rubbished former President John Dramani Mahama's suggestions that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has failed to deliver on promises made ahead of the 2016 elections.

Former President Mahama had earlier ridiculed the governing NPP over the challenges it is facing in managing the country's economy.

According to him, the NPP was only good at making promises, but lacked the ability to properly manage the economy and deliver on those promises.

He said the NPP government has led Ghanaians into untold economic hardship, and that the current situation of Ghanaians was a testament to the poor management.

John Mahama made the comments while addressing delegates of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Tatale in the Northern Region as part of his nationwide campaign tour to lead the NDC in the next presidential elections.

“You can do all the propaganda you like to win political power, when you come to government; the reality of the people's life will expose you,” he said.

“Where are the factories, where are the dams, where is the $1 million per constituency. It is easier to make electoral promises than to fulfill them. Making promises is easy, fulfilling them is a problem. That is what NPP has taught us. It is easier to give political lectures on the economy than to manage the economy,” he added.

Speaking on Citi TV/FM's News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue Mr. Hadzide however said the former President was only trying to score cheap political points by making such claims.

“It is quite difficult following former President John Mahama. He appears quite incoherent and inconsistent ever since he hit the road in his ambition. We must first of all note that this is John Mahama's attempt to lead the party for a second time. Jerry John Rawlings was not contested. Prof Mills was contested by just one individual from the NDC. Every Tom Dick and Harry believes his record was abysmal, his record was poor, his management of the economy was disastrous, and so we have this sheer number of persons from within the NDC who are themselves not satisfied.

“From within NDC there is tacit admission that people are not satisfied with the leadership style of John Dramani Mahama. First of all he has to convince his party folks that whatever mistake he thinks he may have done in the past were genuine mistakes, and show remorse, but he does not appear to be doing that. He appears to want to play tricks on the NDC and jump from the internal competition and position himself as though he is already the Flagbearer of the NDC and former President John Mahama is known for that.”

John Mahama also subtly chided the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, saying that his prowess in delivering lectures on the economy did not make him a better manager of the economy.

It would be recalled that in the run-up to the 2016 elections, Dr. Bawumia who was then the NPP's choice for Vice President made several public statements including a widely broadcasted public lecture on the state of the Ghanaian economy under John Mahama's administration in which he sought to declare the then government incompetent and unable to manage the economy well.

Despite the NDC government's subsequent attempts to discount Dr. Bawumia's claims, the NPP managed to kick them out of power, among other things, on account of many promises it made to Ghanaians and pledge that it will ensure economic prosperity by managing the economy better.

However, John Mahama, who is seeking to lead the country again has observed that after almost 20 months of the NPP government, they're unable to practice what they preached.

Mahama told the delegates that, “any economics lecturer can give lectures on the economy, but not every lecturer can manage the economy,” referring to Bawumia.