Former President John Dramanni Mahama has given the assurance that the next NDC government under his leadership in 2025 would not be in a hurry to undertake new projects because he anticipated the fiscal space to be too small for such ambitious projects.
He said, instead, the NDC would take an inventory of all the abandoned projects in the country and ensure that all such projects are completed before tackling new ones.
Addressing Kwadaso Constituency polling stations executives and Tertiary Educational Institutions Network (TEIN) members at the Akenten Appiah Menkah University of Skills and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) auditorium near Asuoyeboah-Tanoso in Kumasi, last week Saturday night, as part of his three-day tour of the Ashanti region, the former President said perhaps God in His infinite wisdom allowed government to change hands in 2016 from the NDC to NPP, so that Ghanaians could compare and know which of them is better.
The former President, who is seeking the mandate of the polling stations executives to lead the NDC as a flagbearer said governance and leadership are about taking responsibility but the NPP government has blamed their own inefficiencies on “John Mahama and the NDC bad administration” for five years.
He said the Akufo-Addo led NPP government’s attempt to now shift the blame to Russia and Ukraine war is untenable because he studied in Russia and, therefore, very familiar with all the countries around that enclave and queried why Russia’s immediate neighbours like Poland, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia and the rest are not experiencing the kind of economic crisis Ghana is currently going through.
Former President Mahama said the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the NPP ignored every wise counsel against excessive borrowing because his company, the Databank, benefited from every loan the government contracted and the President who is his uncle has also refused every attempt, including petitions from their own MPs to change him.
According to the former President, he had served in government as MP, Deputy Minister, Minister, Vice President and President and would have loved to retire and enjoy his peace, but he is not sure he can rest under this situation when people, including even pensioners are suffering and, therefore, he wants to come back to rescue the country.
He said the very people who campaigned that Ghanaians were suffering in the midst of plenty wealth in the country and begged the electorate “to try them” were the same people who have brought the country to its lowest ebb.
Commenting on the name ‘AAMUSTED’, formerly University of Education, Winneba, Kumasi Campus (UCEW-K), the former President said apart from the premier universities, all other public universities in the country were built by his predecessor former Presidents Rawlings, Atta-Mills and himself, and added that the NPP and President Akufo-Addo only know how to name public universities after “their political party founders and relatives”.
Mr. Joseph Yamin, the National Organiser of the NDC said the Kwadaso Constituency benefited from the E-Block project which was criticised by the NPP as schools built in the bush and emphasised that one of such locations has now become a prime residential area for most of the NPP ministers and party executives.
From Thomas Agbenyegah Adzey, Kumasi
