Tuesday, April 26, 2016

MAHAMA NOT ENTITLED TO EIGHT YEARS

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?” 
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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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