National House of Chiefs has lost its voice on national issues – Mahama

The former President, John Mahama, has criticised the National House of Chiefs, saying it has suddenly gone silent under the Akufo-Addo-led government over the same issues it was very loud about when he was in power.

During a courtesy call on the paramount chief of Asogli Traditional Council in the Volta Region, the Agbogbomefia Togbe Afede XIV, the 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the current leadership of the House of Chiefs is timid.

“We admired your frankness and boldness when you were [president] of the National House of Chiefs. Since you left, the voice of that House on national affairs is muted,” Mahama told Togbe Afede XIV.

He added: “There are a lot of things that are going on in this country and the House of Chiefs is silent. Times are hard. You the chiefs are the ones who are at the grassroot with the people, you know the hardships that the people are going through.

“At a time like this, if the House had a bold leader like you, I’m sure you would have drawn the government’s attention to what is going on in the country.”

On politics, Mahama served notice the NDC will do everything possible to make sure that they win the 2024 general elections.

He alleged that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) rigged the 2020 polls.

“For 2024, we want to serve notice that we will do everything to make sure that the 2024 election will be transparent, fair and clean. We won’t want to cheat anybody and we’ll not make any attempt to cheat anybody. But we’ll also make sure nobody cheats us. And so when I say the election will be a do or die affair I don’t mean that we’ll do violence in the election: we’ll play our hearts out to make sure that we win the election,” Mahama said.