‘President Mahama is confronting Ghana’s challenges’

Since Nana Akufo Addo announced plans to run for the Presidency for the third consecutive time, there has been the feeling of apprehension in government that you are in for a tough time in the next ballot.First his declaration was not met with excitement even from his own party. Indeed I must say it was […]

Since Nana Akufo Addo announced plans to run for the Presidency for the third consecutive time, there has been the feeling of apprehension in government that you are in for a tough time in the next ballot.
First his declaration was not met with excitement even from his own party. Indeed I must say it was a mixed reaction, because there are many other persons within the party who thought that he had served his time and he cannot cross the limit he has actualized.
There are many persons and senior members of the party who made known their intention to run, because it will be a wrong choice to bring Akufo-Addo again. And if you look at the history in this country, no new candidate has ever beaten an incumbent candidate or president before. That person may be a presidential material but he or she, may be there has not been any female presidential candidate. President Kufuor could not beat President Rawlings in 1996, even though his vice-president had defected, left the alliance and gone to partner with president Kufuor to form Great Alliance.
In the same vein in the year 2000 two fresh people were contesting. One was not an incumbent and the other was not an incumbent, but has had the opportunity to be on the ballot before so he won.
In 2004, we brought late President Mills, but Kufuor was the incumbent, even though he was a presidential material he could not beat president Kufuor for whatever reason.
Right now Akufo-Addo has a larger than life image. Indeed he is considered a statesman and almost equally the status of Rawlings. His gallant showing after the Supreme Court ruling has further endeared him to the people. Don’t you think these factors will work for him?
I don’t think that anybody will see Akufo-Addo as a statesman, that because he lost at the Supreme Court and he said ‘yes’. What was he supposed to say in the first place? Majority of Ghanaians voted earlier and said ‘no’ to him. But he didn’t accept it and wanted the wise men to pronounce judgment on what majority of Ghanaians have said. What else is left for him to do? You know it is not what you do when you are in a state of comfort, but what you do when you are in a state of desperation is what matters. People will still remember the ‘all die be die’ statement. People will still remember all other things he had said in the past not what he did at the Supreme Court. Right from the start we all knew that he shouldn’t have even gone to the Supreme Court in the first place, because it was quite clear that they had lost. They were saying one message outside of the court room and presenting a different matter in court. We were told through their statement that results were changed, results were swapped. Those were some of the allegations that votes for him were changed for another person. And that the votes of the NDC candidate were padded. Those were the allegations they were making. But when they went to court what were they asking the court to do, that presiding officers did not sign the pink sheets, so results should be cancelled.
But according to opinion poll Akufo-Addo has become so popular that even the president is not has highly rated as him.
I do not know of any opinion poll. And we have also conducted our opinion poll and we know that even the president who has not been on the ballot before he was able to beat him in the first round.
But don’t forget that the situation has changed. Akufo-Addo appears to be getting more support from Ghanaians presently.
And President Mahama has become even more popular. How can he be more popular than the president? You see that is the mistake the media makes that when they know somebody in Accra, the person is well known all over the country. No we don’t see it that way. President Mahama on daily basis is news. President Mahama is on daily basis is appearing on the television, so even a child knows President Mahama; so even when he was not so popular he beat him in the first round. And now he is so popular. He had the opportunity to move to the nooks and crannies of this country and he is solving their problems. We are not saying there are no challenges. Challenges come and leadership is confronting them. Today as we speak one of the biggest problems had been health inequality, which has not been solved by the National Health Insurance. So how can we tackle the problem? Let us invest in infrastructure. The president has taken a step further and was able to convince his appointees that let us dedicate 10 per cent of our pay.
From your submission I can rightly deduce that NPP stands no chance with Akufo-Addo as the party’s flag-bearer. Is that right?
They really stand no chance with whomever they present.  That is my first point. The fact that there are challenges does not mean that Ghanaians will just look and say let’s us give it to NPP or let’s give it to Akufo-Addo, let’s give it to Alan and the rest. What I thought they will be doing as a party is to select a possible candidate that will still be available in 2020 by which time Mahama is exiting, that candidate would have been the most popular most probably.
And then he can slug it out with the new candidate for the NDC. But we will be happy if they present Akufo-Addo, who will not be available in 2020. So the new person we will be bringing will even be more popular than the person they will be bringing; so that we will be able to take it again.