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Presidential Staffer Kojo Adu Asare believes the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is confused about the concept of abuse of incumbency.

According to him, claims by the NPP that President Mahama’s ‘Accounting to the People’ tour constitutes abuse of incumbency are unwarranted and hypocritical.

The former Adenta MP questioned the motive of the NPP for their constant criticisms of the president’s tour:

“I think the NPP and their surrogates are confused about this whole idea of incumbency abuse, for me incumbency abuse is when you use your authority to deprive people of their fundamental rights, it has nothing to do with going round the region and accounting to the very people who have given you the mandate to do a job for them what you have used the resources they have given you for. Rather, abuse of incumbency was when the NPP decided to strip former president Rawlings of all his diplomatic courtesies because of his criticism of the Kufuor government, so please the NPP must come again”.

Mr Adu Asare was contributing to a discussion on the ongoing tour of the president dubbed “Accounting to the People" tour which has already taken him to three regions namely. the Eastern, Western and most recently Volta.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused President John Mahama of abuse of incumbency citing the President’s tour as a campaign. Spokespersons of the party have argued that President Mahama’s use of campaign words like “this is what we want to do when you give us power,” makes his tours a campaign and nothing else. They also contend that the use of state funds and time to campaign amounts to the abuse of incumbency. They want the President to come clean and admit this and not hide under the guise of working for the state. They also say that accounting is about incomes and expenditure or the negatives and the positives of what you have done with your budget. But so far, "the president is only commissioning all of the positives and talking about non-existent projects, things that haven't happened and that would happen.”

President Mahama has personally rejected the assertion saying he is yet to campaign and when the time comes his critics will know.

Officials of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) have also parried the incumbency abuse flak.

Speaking on Kokrokoo program on Peace FM Friday hosted by Kwami Sefa Kayi, the former Adenta MP said the NPP’s accusation should be disregarded and treated with the contempt it deserves.

“I think that because the NPP does not have a message they are seeking to play political mischief with anything and everything the president is doing. For me the president is doing the right thing and so he should be left alone”, he said.

He added that the President is carrying out his duties as president as the Constitution demands of him. To him, it shows he is a man of his words and a man of integrity which is scarce in the body politic of Ghana today. He pointed out that Ghanaians gave President Mahama the mandate to serve and there is nothing wrong with him accounting to the people and telling them with evidence what he did with the mandate.