Former President and flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, has criticised President Nana Akufo-Addo for apparently allowing violence and tension to characterize his administration, noting that under other Presidents in the Fourth Republic including himself, this was not the case.
He made the point while speaking on the readiness of the NDC to police the ballot come December 7, 2020 when the country goes to the polls.
“I mean all his time in politics, it’s ‘all die be die’. He actually thrives on tension and all that kind of thing. And it has shown in his administration as president; there’s always tension.
I mean things that we’ve been used to doing as political parties for a long time -Under Rawlings, under Kufuor, under Mills, under me – that have gone normally without any real aggravation…
I mean anything little under this particular government is so full of tension and violence. And so we will depend on the people to protect the ballot and I believe that God is on our side and we will win the election,” he said in an interview with Eric Ahianyo on Woezor TV oThursday, October 1, 2020.
Mr Mahama added that unlike the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) that relies on vigilante groups to protect their ballot, the NDC has put its trust in the people to protect their votes.
“But like I’ve said, the NDC is not going to follow them down that road, we are not going to set up vigilante groups to fight them….we believe that the people are empowered enough to be able to protect their votes and, so, we are going to call on people’s power: that everybody, make sure nobody comes and disrupts the elections at your polling station,” he stated.
He then bemoaned the employment of members of vigilante groups into the security agencies, describing it as unfortunate.
“Unfortunately, we have a government that not only has vigilante groups, but has also embedded some of these vigilante groups in the security services,” he added.
Speaking on the recent alleged secessionist violence in the Volta Region, he accused the Government of not showing seriousness in handling the situation, pointing out that even when the situation was topical, senior government officials rather chose to go and commission a compost plant in the Kumasi instead visiting the area.
Mr Mahama is currently on a campaign tour of the Bono Region.
