Former Communications Minister, Edward Omane Boamah has advised that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo initiates processes for a smooth transition of power to the opposition National Democratic Congress in the upcoming 2020 elections if he insists on pursuing the path of ‘blame gaming’ and ‘misleading’.
His comments come on the back of recent suggestions by President Akufo-Addo to the effect that Former President John Mahama had lied about his infrastructural achievements in various parts of the country during his term in office.
The President, who was addressing the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs when they paid a courtesy call on him at the Jubilee house Tuesday, May 7 noted that complaints have consistently reached his quarters about the devastating state of most of the country’s roads.
“Roads are my biggest burden in Ghana”, he said.
He added that “Before I came here, I was told by my biggest competitor that they have done all the roads in Ghana and that they are responsible for an unprecedented infrastructural development, every where I go, I do not think there is any authority institution that has talked to me and has not raised the issue about the roads in their area as their principal concern".
“It is not good for us as politicians to be misleading the people. If you have not done something, don’t claim it. Don’t write it in your books and don’t make pronouncements on it,” he continued.
But in reaction, Edward Omane Boamah castigated President Akufo-Addo for spewing out untruths with very scanty or no facts to back it.
According to him, The former President’s ‘GreenBook’ captured efforts the then government had made to resolve ‘some’ of the most intractable national problems in the country; it is, therefore, absurd he insists that the President will create the perception that the NDC touted themselves as having solved all infrastructural problems in the country.
“My emphasis is “some.” It is therefore, absolutely untenable for President Akufo-Addo to posit that by any stretch of one’s imagination the Mahama administration claimed to have addressed every infrastructure need of Ghana”.
He further urged President Akufo-Addo to pay heed and put in the necessary actions to deal with the infrastructural problems the country’s citizens are presenting to him and complaining about rather than continue in his ‘shameful’ pattern of peddling falsehoods and blaming his competitors.
“Mr. President, the respected chiefs of the Upper West region have put a request before you. So, I urge you to take the bull by the horn. You are lucky to have been bequeathed a nearly completed Upper West Regional hospital and a partially worked on Wa airstrip infrastructure; so do the do. “Fix it!” As you once told President Atta Mills of blessed memory”, he said.
Further adding, “A piece of advice. Mr. President, you are in your penultimate year in office; and your predecessor who is still your competitor truly delivered unprecedented infrastructure to Ghanaians.
Therefore, if you are still blaming him, then you have to start writing your handing over notes earlier than expected because this blame game a year ahead of 2020 is recipe for your electoral defeat”.
Read the full statement below:
President Akufo-Addo and Former President John Mahama