Former President John Mahama just wants to get his hands on Ghana’s bauxite, thus, his ‘do or die’ comment in reference to the 2024 general elections, the Communication Director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Yaw Buaben Asamoa, has said.
The former Adentan MP Class FM Wednesday, 8 September 2021 said that Mr Mahama betrayed his real intention of wanting to return to power with his ‘do or die’ comment.
On Tuesday, 7 September 2021, the 2020 flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said during his ‘Thank You’ tour that: “We were clearly robbed but we accepted the verdict for the sake of peace.”
“But I want to state here that the next elections would be won or lost at the polling station. So, at the polling station, it will be 'do or die'”.
“I am not saying ‘all die be die’. I’m saying it will be ‘do or die’ because the right thing must be done,” Mr Mahama told Techiman-based Akina FM.
According to Mr Buaben Asamoa, however, Mr Mahama “poured calumny on the head of the EC Chair and now he accepts that elections are won at polling stations?”.
“Why did he damage her [EC Chair] so much? Is he going to apologise to her? At what point does somebody die for you? It just shows that his leadership skills are in doubt”, Mr Asamoa said.
He added: “For me, it’s not so much of his words as in his desire to be somebody he is not at all cost, and what is the object of all that?”
“I’m beginning to suspect that he just wants to get his hands back on the bauxite, finished”, he told Joshua Kojo Mensah, explaining: “Because he’s not offering any leadership. He’s not offering anything new to the NDC. He’s not edifying the political debate and when you begin to descend – already at this level when you are not even the candidate for the NDC, you begin to issue threats – then it’s very difficult going forward for the NDC as a whole, not just its leadership”.
“How do you put your trust in this man who seeks to lead you and is already operating in ways that do not edify your own desires?” he asked.
In Mr Buaben Asamoa’s view, Mr Mahama “is not demonstrating leadership”.
“He’s had the opportunity to lead this country, he didn’t give off his best and he’s still trying to create the impression he’s the best leader this country never had. It’s not true”, he insisted.
Mr Asamoa said: “If you [Mahama] insist that you have to be president and with your stature as a former president, you must demonstrate some sense of statesmanship, at what cost should a Mahama presidency be to the nation? At the cost of its peace of mind?”
Shoving off Mr Mahama’s explanation that the comment was just an idiomatic expression, Mr Buaben Asamoa said: “And ‘all die be die’ was not an idiomatic expression?”
“What didn’t he [Mr Mahama] make out of it? Fortunately for him, the NPP may not bother to go in that direction but what did he make out of ‘all die be die’? That was not an idiomatic expression?” he wondered.
He said: “You can always explain yourself after your real intent pops out of your mouth and his intent has popped out of his mouth”.
“What drove him to make that statement? ‘Do or die’! And what is the limit? What is the limit of the actual substantive action that will be driven by this idiomatic expression? He should be able to tell us: how is he going to carry out the substantive action which this idiomatic expression covers as an umbrella?”
<<Print>>