Delivering his lecture on Thursday, October 27, 2022, in Accra on the topic, Building The Ghana We Want, the former president said that there have been many things that he asked Akufo-Addo to do, as a way of helping the economy, that he has failed to do.
John Mahama added that one of those things, as he suggested earlier during his address to the nation at the Ghana At The Crossroads lecture, was for the president to reshuffle his appointees.
Another, he said, was for the president to address the nation directly so that the citizenry appreciate his efforts at making better their economic plights.
“I asked that the President deploys some of the arsenal in the presidential toolkit and reshuffle his government to inject innovation and freshness of thinking into the running of the country. I also asked that the president addresses the nation to inform the public of the specific steps he was intending to take to weather the pending economic storm.
“This address was meant to calm the anxiety of the investor community and rally Ghanaians behind any such efforts. Regrettably, the president dug-in and failed to do any of these. Let me note that, since this event was advertised, I have been made aware that the President intends to address the nation sometime this weekend,” he said.
John Dramani Mahama further stated that while it has become clear that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is not taking heed to anything he is saying, he prays that when he does address the nation on October 30, 2022, it would calm Ghanaians appropriately.
“It is my prayer that his words would strike the right chords in the hearts of Ghanaians,” he added.
The former president however said that while President Akufo-Addo doesn’t appear to ever want to go by anything he shares with him, he is also minded by the fact that this is not the time for him to score political points with the failure of the incumbent government.
“Since my speech in May, the situation has spiraled out of control and the effects have been calamitous for all of us. The temptation to say “I told you so” may be strong, but we do not believe that this is the time for vainglorious pursuit of vindication, and neither is there any room for gloating,” he added.
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John Dramani Mahama is the former president of Ghana