Former President John Mahama has been accused of self-centred disdain for the poor by the leader of former workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) whose benefits have remained unpaid after they were retrenched in 2002.
Mr. Stephen Ashitey Adjei, leader of the ex-workers, lamented what he said is a general lack of justice and empathy from the political class towards the less privileged but singled out former President Mahama for the highest blame in an interview on the sideline of a one-man demonstration over their plight in Accra.
“Take the current issue of the placement of First and Second Ladies on the same salary as Article 71 officeholders, for instance, Mr. Mahama has justified it asking for these placements to be backed with law.
“However, this is the same John Mahama who ignored a fiat from his former boss, the late President Mills to have the ex-GPHA workers paid when he became President after President Mills has died in office. This tells you that when it comes to the welfare of his wife and himself, he is quick to support but when it comes to the welfare of the poor workers he ignores.”
Mr. Ashitey Adjei had made the remarks in an interview with journalists after he had staged the one-man demonstration over the lingering injustice himself and his colleagues who were retrenched without the proper benefits in 2002.
After marching through some principal streets of Accra, he had presented petitions to the Presidency at Jubilee House and also to the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.
In 2002, some ex-workers of the GPHA had been retrenched in a World Bank program, but their retrenchment benefits were not duly paid. After the Mills government had succeeded the Kufuor government, the workers who had been fighting for their benefits had written to Prof. Mills for justice.
President Mills is said to have issued a fiat for the Ministry of Transport to get the GPHA to pay the ex-workers. After this instruction had been issued, however, President Mills would suddenly die in office leaving his then Vice, John Mahama, in charge as President.
“When Vice President Mahama took over from President Mills, the natural thing to do was to follow up our case with President Mahama. But unlike Mills, he did not even reply to a single petition we wrote to him; he totally ignored us until he was voted out of office in 2016,” Mr. Ashitey Adjei lamented.
He was livid that, “when it came to our issue, John Mahama turned a blind eye, but now that his wife stands to benefit from the placement of First and Second Ladies on salaries, he has quickly given his approval for the salaries to be backed with law.
Mr. Mahama would like to be NDC flagbearer again so that if he becomes president, his brother can get mega-state contracts, Mahama only thinks of himself and his family, he doesn’t care about the poor masses including NDC members in general”.
Earlier Mr. Ashitey Adjei had responded to a march by members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for justice for persons killed under the Akufo-Addo government by writing that the focus of the march was too narrow. According to him, the march should have also focused on the destruction of lives by the Mahama government.
“Many of the ex-workers have died from melancholy while many continue to languish in abject poverty because John Mahama as President chose to turn a blind eye. That was also callous,” Mr. Ashitey Adjei said.
What is intriguing about the ex-GPHA workers’ issue is that even though about 4,000 workers were affected, the government paid only five. The GPHA then went on to fight the ex-workers in court until their case was dismissed on technical grounds.