The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has responded to former President John Dramani Mahama’s statement on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s legacy.
Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, had stated that he would not protect Akufo-Addo’s legacy, which he described as corrupt, inept, arrogant, and misgoverned.
Ernest Owusu-Bempah, NPP Deputy Director of Communications, accused Mahama of being the last person to preach about corruption, given his own history of corrupt practices.
He listed several corruption scandals that occurred under Mahama’s presidency, including the GYEEDA and SADA scandals, and a bribery scandal involving Mahama and a Burkinabe businessman.
Owusu-Bempah questioned Mahama’s moral authority to speak about corruption, given his own embodiment of corruption.
He stated that Mahama’s regime was marked by a corrosive culture of corruption, which cost the state huge sums of money and embarrassed the country.
The NPP communicator emphasized that Ghanaians should not tolerate distractions on the nation’s journey to prosperity and that Mahama is not a viable option.
He wrote, “We will take morality and corruption advice from anywhere but certainly not Mahama’s brothel.”
Owusu-Bempah’s statement continued, “What would you say if Osama Bin Laden called someone a ‘terrorist’, if a prostitute called another woman a ‘whore’, or if North Korea’s Kim Jong Un called another leader a ‘dictator’? No doubt you would probably die laughing at the irony. Yet we in Ghana have tolerated a character that epitomizes irony to the extent that his utterances have now gone beyond the pale.”
He added, “It all began in late 2007 when the then NDC flagbearer, Prof John Atta-Mills asked Mahama to be on the ticket with him for the 2008 presidential elections. Well, it came to pass that Mills won, and that was the beginning of a different brand of political corruption spearheaded by John Mahama.”
Owusu-Bempah further stated, “President Mills couldn’t finish his term of office, and the baton was handed over to John Mahama. When this corrupt politician took over an unplanned leadership of the country, corruption blossomed like never before. The long view of history will count a broader catalogue of corruption under Mahama’s presidency. Power doesn’t get much more entrusted than that.”
He listed several corruption scandals that occurred under Mahama’s presidency, including the bus branding corruption, GYEEDA scandal, SADA corruption, and a bribery scandal involving Mahama and a Burkinabe businessman.
Owusu-Bempah concluded, “Mahama can’t talk about corruption because the man himself is an embodiment of corruption. His regime was buffered by several corruption scandals that cost the state huge sums of money in lost revenue, and some cases embarrassed the country. Mahama supervised a corrosive culture of corruption.
We fear many Ghanaians still labor under the delusion that Mahama is an option, but there comes a time in a nation’s journey to prosperity when distractions must not be tolerated, when we stand up and look the devil in the eyes and say there’s no place here for you.”
