Former President John Mahama “suffers from a pandemic of indecision”, the National Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party, Mr Sammi Awuku has said, observing: “It is evident from how he stumbled reluctantly into the Vice-Presidency, when his whole plan was to pursue a PhD course in South Africa, and how he became President accidentally”.

“He should thank Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader, and Stan Dogbe, his own aide, who, in John Mahama’s bedroom in late March 2008, begged him to accept the running mate offer.

“In fact, that day, Haruna Iddrisu is known to have torn into pieces an open letter that the MP for Bole, John Mahama, had written to the NDC leadership and was about to have it published to say that he was not at all interested in becoming Prof Mills’s running mate.

“Ghanaians must blame the two men for stopping John Mahama from doing what he really wanted to do”, Mr Awuku said at a press conference on Thursday, 13 August 2020.

He said: “We are surprised that Kwamena Ahwoi missed that important episode of history in his book, “Working with Rawlings”.  

According to him, Mr Mahama’s “political life is rife with evidence that, apart from being a smooth talker, John Mahama is not a man of conviction, vision and competence; he is not a man with the commitment and boldness to confront and manage an economy under this novel coronavirus pandemic, with all its implications for lives and livelihoods”. 

Managing this country, Mr Awuku noted, “is too complex for Candidate Mahama simply because he has been tried, tested and he failed and he actually believes even today that he did well!  Candidate Mahama is running for office because he knows no better than to satisfy his selfish interest to be president again”.

Mr Mahama, he recalled, “was given a big chance and he blew it big time! As my mentor and friend, the late Sir John asked memorably the other day: ‘What is it that John Mahama left at Jubilee House that he wants to back for? Whatever it is, let him say it so that I can fetch it for him?’ Sadly, Sir John may be no more, but that offer still stands”.

Speaking about Mr Mahama’s commentary on the recently-held voter registration exercise, Mr Awuku said: “Last Sunday, the nation achieved an important milestone toward having credible general elections on December 7, 2020. A new voters’ register was compiled to the admiration of even those, like the opposition National Democratic Congress, who went on street protests and threatened to cause mayhem and even subject themselves to self-imposed castration if Jean Mensa and her team at the Electoral Commission went ahead to do what is right for Ghana and her democracy”.

“We of the New Patriotic Party stood firm in our conviction, just as we did when in opposition, and supported the EC’s decision to compile a new register and we have been vindicated. We congratulate, once again, the EC for a complex job well done.

“Candidate John Mahama, on the other hand, showed during this registration exercise that he is an indecisive man.  He doesn’t know what he wants.  He doesn’t know what he believes in; so depending on where he thinks the wind is blowing, he takes a position”, he said. 

Below are examples listed by Mr Awuku:

Candidate Mahama now says that the Electoral Commission’s Registration Exercise “has met his expectation.”  How is that possible? Candidate Mahama and the NDC were firmly against the registration exercise. 

Their expectation and machinations were that the registration would not and should not take place at all.   Candidate Mahama and the NDC’s expectation was that Ghanaians would not turn up to register. They tried to scare Ghanaians away with fear and panic over covid-19 infections.

Also, Candidate Mahama mounted a hate campaign to pit one ethnic group against the other all in the hope for vain votes, with false allegations of a deliberate decision by the Government to disenfranchise some Ghanaians. His hate-for-votes campaign only exposed him as selfish, unpatriotic and a danger to the unity, peace and harmony of our democracy.

The outcome of the voter registration exercise is the exact opposite of Candidate Mahama’s expectation.

He now wants to associate with success but he never wants to support and work for success.  We are very happy with the outcome, the high registration turnout to us indicates public confidence, and not apathy, in the political system. But registration is only the first step. We have 116 days to the presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday, December 7, 2020. There is one more and bigger step.

We will urge registered voters up and down the country, in all 16 regions, to turnout in their numbers and vote and vote wisely. But to vote wisely is to make an informed choice. The two main political parties, NPP and NDC, have completed their presidential tickets of candidate and running mate. Soon, we expect the other political parties to do same and wish them all the best.

On Saturday, 22nd August, in order to further help the country make an informed choice, we of the New Patriotic Party will launch our 2020 manifesto.

The manifesto is important to us because we have shown over this first term of the Akufo-Addo administration that we deliver what we promise even as we faced the difficult task of fixing what John Mahama and his NDC destroyed.

We have delivered but there is more work ahead of us to deliver more to bring progress and prosperity to every household in Ghana and that is the programme that we will outline in our manifesto.

We are very confident about the future of Ghana, because for the second term that we seek, we would have no such Mahama crisis to deal with but how to protect and build on the successes that we have achieved to fast-track Ghana’s economic growth and transformation in spite of the global devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Countries as big as the United Kingdom are today facing what they describe as their worst economic recession since World War II. Ghana would have fared far worse if we did not have Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP in office today. Strong, decisive and caring leadership, boosted by the superior management of the economy by the Akufo-Addo government is what has saved Ghana now and what will deliver Ghana’s future.

The December 2020 race is not for the swift with lies, but for those who are swift in action; action that benefits the masses of this country. The December 2020 race is essentially between the NPP and NDC; Nana Akufo-Addo and John Dramani Mahama, the former President and the current President.  We believe it is an easy choice to make because, unfortunately for John Mahama and what he would like you to believe, the people of Ghana DO NOT have a short memory. We remember his abysmal performance like it was only yesterday.