Former President John Mahama has likened the defeat he suffered at the hands of then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2016 elections to the fate suffered by Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1966.
According to him, just like Kwame Nkrumah, he focused on developmental projects during his reign while the opposition maligned him.
Addressing a teeming crowd of NDC supporters at the party’s Unity Walk held in Somanya in the Eastern Regional Saturday, ex President Mahama quoted a famous response from Dr Nkrumah after his overthrow that he didn’t know that Ghanaians wanted milk and sardine.
“Kwame Nkrumah said something while he was in exile that he didn’t know that it was milk and sardine Ghanaians wanted and that he wouldn’t have built Akosombo Dam. He would have distributed sardines and milk free to Ghanaians, and they say history repeats itself.
“When you’re busy working, constructing roads, building hospitals, opening water systems, extending electricity, people say we don’t eat roads, we don’t eat hospitals, we don’t eat schools and they make all kinds of promises and so Ghanaians vote them back into power.”
Ex President Mahama also took a swipe at the New Patriotic Party over its inability to reduce fuel prices.
“In December last year petrol was selling GHC 14.00 and we were told that it was too expensive and that 50% of the petrol was made up of taxes alone and that when they win and come into office, they’ll remove the taxes so that petrol will sell at GHC 7.00. Today, petrol is selling at GHC22.00 per gallon, I’m even more concerned about LPG because LPG was about GHC 40.00 before December 7. Today, LPG is more than GHC 80.00 users and what it means is that those who cannot afford LPG will go back to using charcoal.”