By William Yaw
Owusu
Tuesday, April
26, 2016
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says President John Dramani Mahama is
not entitled to eight years in office as he has been telling Ghanaians on his
‘accounting to the people’ tour.
“President Mahama is telling obvious untruth. The 1992 Constitution
of Ghana does not provide that the president is entitled to eight years. What
the Constitution provides in Article 66 (1) is ‘A person elected as President
shall hold office for a term of four years,’ Nana Akomea, NPP’s Director of
Communications, said in a statement yesterday.
The NPP said that the president is not entitled to eight years as he
has been claiming, but is eligible to stand for re-election for another four
years.
Crude Attempt
“The president is engaged in a crude attempt to hoodwink
unsuspecting Ghanaian voters that a
president is entitled to automatic eight years.
“The eight years of presidents Jerry Rawlings and Kufuor were not
automatic entitlements. Their mandates
were renewed by a majority of Ghanaians based on assessments
of their first four years,” the statement indicated.
According to the NPP, “Ghanaians should be told the truth that they
have it completely in their power to vote to remove President Mahama after four
years in 2016, and that President Mahama is not entitled to any automatic four
years.
“Whether President Mahama gets another four years or not depends on
whether Ghanaians believe his four years have
brought positive dividends or not to their welfare.”
Accounting Tour
The NPP said another big untruth being peddled by the president and
his government that has been exposed is that he is only on some ‘accounting’
tour and not on a campaign tour. Nana Akomea queried, “If the president is on
an ‘accounting’ tour, and merely commissioning and reporting on development
projects, then, on this ‘accounting’
tour, why is he telling Ghanaians to vote for him because every president is ‘entitled’ to
eight years?”
The statement continued, “Even
on his claim of a four-year
mandate, why is President Mahama
showcasing road projects that started in President Mills ‘ time, and therefore
span more than four years? Why is he constantly telling Ghanaians he has done
more than other regimes, or that other regimes did nothing in one region or the
other? Why is he constantly asking Ghanaians on this ‘no campaign’ tour to vote
for him?”
.
The NPP said, “It is very clear from his own pronouncements captured
everyday on radio and television that he is hiding under this so-called
‘accounting’ to engage in some furious political campaigning ahead of the 2016
elections.”
Incumbency Abuse
The leading opposition party noted, “President Mahama is clearly
engaged in a shameless abuse of incumbency. And it is even more a shame that
his government will not admit to it but rather lie to the Ghanaian people.
“President Mahama has gone on to tell Ghanaians on his so-called ‘accounting’ tour
that he lost part of his first year to the eight months election petition in
2013. The president cannot be sincere with this comment. In the period from January
to August 2013 when the petition ran in the court, the president got sworn in,
renovated and moved into the Flagstaff House,
drew up his budget and got it passed by parliament; nominated all his
over 80 ministers of state and got them vetted and approved by parliament;
collected taxes, including imposing new
ones (VAT hike); imposed massive hikes
in utility tariff, got $1 billion on the
Eurobond, etc.”
The NPP said that the performance of President Mahama’s government
on crucial issues such as the deficit, inflation, the value of the cedi, among
others, were markedly better in 2013 than in 2014, when there was no election
petition.
“Indeed, on several occasions in 2013 when the president was asked
whether the petition was affecting his governance, he always responded in the
negative, and always assured that he was focused on his job. So how come he is
now telling Ghanaians he lost one year due to the 2013 election petition? Why
is President Mahama speaking from both sides of his mouth?” the party wondered.
It said he (president) had not given any figures on costing and
value for money, which should be normal in any accounting process involving
projects.
Four Thematic Areas
“More significantly, the NDC 2012 election promises to Ghanaians
were on four main themes, found on pages 4 to 5 of their 2012 manifesto. These
were: putting people first; a strong and resilient economy; expanding
infrastructure and eliminating corruption and ensuring transparent and
accountable governance.
“In ‘accounting’ to the people, how come President Mahama seems to
be accounting for only infrastructure developments? What happened to accounting
to the people on their welfare, stable and resilient economy, corruption,
transparent and accountable governance?” the NPP asked
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