Presidency not for experimenting, learning from mistakes – Akufo-Addo to Mahama

“We are told that those who were responsible for the worst economic performance of the last 30 years say they have learned their lessons and seek another opportunity to correct their mistakes. Then I ask, should the presidency be used for experiments? Surely not.”

President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, shortly after getting acclaimed as the official presidential candidate of the NPP

Read full articleahead of the December polls, threw these subtle shots at his opponent from the opposition NDC.

Addressing the National Council and members of the National Executive Committee at the Alisa and Swiss Hotel in Accra on Saturday, Nana Akufo-Addo intimated that Ghanaians deserved a better leader at the helm of affairs and not one who would use the highest seat as a trial and error ground.

His remarks were in reaction to former President John Dramani Mahama’s bid to take a second stint as the first gentleman of the land.

Mr Mahama has on several fronts encouraged the populace to give him a second chance at the presidency after his defeat in the 2016 elections, citing that he has learnt lessons from his previous governance.

In response, however, the NPP flagbearer noted: “You the Ghanaian people deserve better and you will get better on 7 December.”

Outlining reasons for Ghanaians to retain him at the presidency, Akufo-Addo took the opportunity to compare and contrast his administration's feats against that of his opponent, John Mahama.

“We have a good story to tell and we should go out and tell it in every sector of our lives. We should show the difference between the NPP way of tackling problems and the way our opponents do it.

“We grow the economy; they shrink the economy. We create a properly regulated enabling atmosphere for businesses to flourish, they allow chances and speculators to lure citizens into putting their monies into doggy enterprises. They bring our banks and our financial services to mere collapse and we have to clean up thoroughly and restore confidence.”

“They plunge us into dumsor, we keep the lights on. They look on clueless as hundreds of thousands of Ghana’s children exit school at JHS, we bring free SHS and free TVET to prepare our children better to face life. They resort to crude language when they are faced with difficult arguments, we raise the level of public discourse. We owe it to ourselves and to Ghana to win the elections in December decisively to make sure that we keep the economy on track and not in the hands of people who will run it again into the ground.”

He averred that the Mahama-led administration would only get worse and further plunge the country into further misfortunes if given another term of governance.