John Dramani Mahama, former President of Ghana
Former President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama has stated that the governing New Patriotic Party is fighting to stay in power to avoid accountability after eight years of creating, looting and sharing.
The New Patriotic Party(NPP) government has repeatedly stated that it is working hard at ensuring that it is the political party to break the eight years jinx on political parties in power.
The party believes that its policies, programmes and move to transform Ghana’s fortunes will help them achieve the vision of staying in power for a very long time.
But the former President of Ghana who was also the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 election John Dramani Mahama believes the NPP does not have the country and its citizens at heart but rather want to shield their corrupt practices.
Speaking in an interview with Radio Tamale’s Robicon Mornahson the former President said: “They say politicians are liars. Politicians don’t tell the truth. We hear a lot of them among the youth. But it’s lesser among the electorates.
“A government comes and says I will build 350 new secondary schools. And on the basis of that, you vote for them. Or a government comes and says when I come I am going to create jobs and put money into your pockets.
“And 5 years on, you feel poorer even before they came. Or 5 years on, more young people are unemployed more than before. These things, the net effect or impact is that it changes the faith of the people in the democratic system that we have”.
Adding that: “And that is why today you can find more young people come out to say just fix the country. Fix the country. It demands our collective efforts as leaders. We should not say it is only they who are in government. We should look at it beyond NPP.
“And when NDC comes, they will ask you to fix it. So I am saying that this is the time to engage our youth. We need an agenda that will force, and it is more radical that will change the fortunes of our country. And I think that it is not at the head of one president. Or in the bossom of one political party. It will take a lot of collaboration. It will take a lot of consensus building. It will take a lot of accountability. Holding people accountable”.
But John Dramani Mahama dismissed the dreams of the NPP indicating that Ghana’s constitution gave every government eight years after which another comes in to scrutinize the work done.
“They say, ‘break the 8,’ so sweep every useless thing we have done under the carpet, but (elect) someone who is amenable to us so that we don’t account for our 8 years. No, accountability must take place.
“You have been in government for 8 years, so a new government must come and hold you to account. Why did you do that? Why did you do this? People are happy to run away with the loot that they have made,” he stated.