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The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, has described the President�s address as abysmal. Speaking to Citi News after President John Mahama�s appearance at the IEA Presidential evening encounter on Thursday, Mr. Owusu Afriyie stated that the address was below that of an A-Level writer. He said: �We call it an O-Level performance because if you listened to him carefully, the man was jittery, the man was not on top of the issues, he did not know what he was talking about, he started sweating and was fidgeting. That tells you the person did not have any confidence or whatsoever. The country needs a leader who is more competent.� �For us, even though he spoke about education, he had no understanding of what Ghanaians want. What he doesn�t understand is that when you talk about access, it does not mean building and infrastructure. Most people do not go to school because there are no buildings but because their parents cannot afford the school fees,� he explained. But the campaign team of President Mahama in a quick rebuttal described the criticisms as unfortunate. They indicate that the President�s response to questions asked at the IEA�s evening encounter showed he had a clear understanding of the issues facing the people in the country. According to them, the President�s commitment to working for Ghanaians shows a positive advancement in the better Ghana Agenda by the government. Speaking on Citi FM�s news analysis programme Inside Politics, the Communication Director for President Mahama�s campaign team, Hannah Tetteh mentioned that �The president has demonstrated that the NDC government has credible plans to deal with the challenges that we face.� �There is only so much you can do when you are given 30 to 40 minutes to make a written presentation. Given that the different sectors in which we want to address issues as government are so diverse and so myriad, I don�t think you expect everything to be addressed within that period of time,� she explained. Ms. Tetteh continued that government wants to ensure that the structures of government work so that �we can have transparent and accountable government and people are made to answer for the things that they do. President Mahama demonstrated yesterday that he is committed to working for the people of Ghana.�