Prez Mahama Is In His Seventh Year...

The General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, has rebuffed the assertion by functionaries of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) that President John Dramani Mahama is yet to fulfil all the campaign promises, because it is still early days in his administration.

The NPP General Secretary says it is wrong, and for that matter, mischievous for the NDC and their communication team to attribute President Mahama's incompetence to the period of his stay in office, stressing that the President has had more than enough time to exhibit his competence to Ghanaians.

President Mahama, yesterday, celebrated exactly two years of being elected and sworn in as President of Ghana.

At Fox FM in Kumasi Wednesday, Mr. Agyapong said it would be highly unfair on the part of the NDC to attribute their inefficiencies to the fact that President Mahama has not been in office for long, stressing that the NDC and President Mahama have entered the twilight of their second term in office.

He observed that governance is not about an individual, and that a president is elected on the ticket of a party, and not based on an individual.

President Mahama and government communicators have often sought to create the impression that President Mahama is only entering his second year, and that things will normalise as the years progress.

But, the NPP General Secretary says such an assertion is a deceptive way of covering the abysmal performance of President Mahama and the NDC government, who, he said, have been in office for seven consecutive years.

According to him, Ghanaians have witnessed almost seven wasteful vears of hardships, year of the NDC second term. Let no one misconstrue this fact and throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians; governance is not limited to an individual, it is a party that forms the government, and so let it be stated clearly that the NDC has spent seven consecutive years in office," he emphasised.

He said under no circumstance should the President, or any member of the NDC, attempt to deceive Ghanaians by trying to decouple the late President Mills' administration from that of President Mahama, who played an integral role as Vice President.

Mr. Agyapong further emphasised that in the case of President Mahama, he has no excuse at all to not deliver, considering the fact that he has lived through all the various stages of political governance, including being a Member of Parliament (MP), a deputy minister, minister, Vice President and President.

"We were all in this country when President Mahama, then Vice President, told us that he was virtually doing all the job, because the late President Mills had offered him enough opportunity; he even described himself as the luckiest Vice President ever. Then came the sudden demise of President Mills, and he (Mahama) took over. So what justification does he have to tell us that he has spent just two years; they can go ahead and tickle themselves, but Ghanaians are very wise, and are aware of the number of years that the NDC has been around," Mr. Agyapong pointed out.

Mr. Agyapong further noted that President Mahama has been in active political leadership for almost two decades, dating back to the era of ex-president Rawlings, and should have by now acquired observed that the strenuous hardships the NDC and Presidenl Mahama had unleashed on Ghanaians since their assumption into office clearly indicate that I President Mahama has learnt little from the long period he has been in active politics.

"Let's us not forget it was that President Mahama who led this fiasco STX deal, with a promise build 200,000 housing units for security personnel. Under the watch of this President, we have seen widespread corruption and nepotism amongst public officials and payment of dubious judgment debts amongst others", he said.

Source: The Chronicle