President John Dramani Mahama has taken a swipe at the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) accusing him of fomenting dissension in his party.
According to him, under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the NPP has won an “Olympic gold medal in insults”. He believes if the culture of verbal abuse is not addressed, it will undo Ghana's democratic gains.
“Developments in the largest opposition party threatens the country; the character of its leadership where people who are moderate [and] level headed have been cowed into silence because of fear of being victimized in the party should not be tolerated,” he said.
President Mahama made this comment when he addressed party faithful at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium during the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) launch of the 2016 campaign.
Supporters of the NDC were walked through the challenges the country is facing and the measures President Mahama has put in place to ensure that the country emerges victorious at the end.
One after the other, functionaries of the NDC extolled the good works of the President.
Standing before the supporters, the President said the country is emerging as a strong and credible country despite the challenges it is facing.
These achievements he believes have been shredded by the NPP that is saying the government has done next to nothing regarding the development of the country.
“Our investment in socio-economic infrastructure is an investment in the future of the country,” he said, adding, his achievements are littered everyone in the country.
He touched on massive road networks across the country, the enviable image of the country in the comity of nations and improving condition of the power crisis as some of his achievements.
But the NPP supporters buoyed by Mr Akufo-Addo, he said, will dismiss his achievements and rain insults on him if he dared them because “even former President John Agyekum Kufuor has not been spared insults.”
The growing penchant of insult among NPP members is not “healthy for our democracy,” he said, urging Ghanaians to condemn it.
The mark of competency of every leader, he says, is the person’s ability to unite his followers and not to sow seeds of discord among them. This is what the Standard Bearer of the NPP has been doing.
On the EC:
The President says he has been monitoring the way some functionaries of the NPP have been bastardising the Electoral Commission (EC).
He says some of the insults heaped on the EC are “unprintable” which must not be condemned by all Ghanaians considering the crucial nature of the 2016 election.
“As students of politics we all know the NPP’s attack is an old trick where you discredit the referee to prove a case,” he said. “This is the underlying force for all the whining against the EC.”
He urged the Commission to collaborate with all the political parties to ensure that the integrity of this year's election is not compromised.
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