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In his first public reaction to his opponent Dr Mahamudu Bawumia's media encounter last Sunday night, former President John Mahama says Bawumia attempted to distance himself from his government’s track record, which according Mr Mahama was abysmal.
"When a smooth talker suddenly becomes a stammerer at a media encounter then you know they are lying', Mr Mahama said flag bearer of the governing New Patriotic Party.
Speaking at various community engagements in the Greater Accra Region at Bonikope, Sege and Kasseh as part of his campaign tour, Mr Mahama, who is the flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said, "We [NDC] announced that we were going to launch our manifesto on the 24th of August."
"Immediately our [NPP] opponents announced that they were going to do a media encounter on the 25th of August, the very next day. You know, the intention for doing that media encounter, the next day after we had announced our manifesto was to turn the attentions of Ghanaians from the NDC manifesto. That was the main reason, that they decided to do a media encounter the very next day that we launched our manifesto."
"But you see, when you do something with dubious intention, it backfires on you. You know how to tell when somebody is lying? If you have people who are smooth talkers, who can speak ‘ratatatata’ like machine gun, the time when they become stammerers and they start stammering, you know they are lying. Somebody who can speak, ‘tatatata’ like AK 47 [rifle] suddenly, media encounter, eerrrm errrrmm,” Mr Mahama stated.
NAPO too was sleeping
Adding and speaking in the Ga language, Mr Mahama said, the one following him too [NAPO] was also sleeping.
According to Mr Mahama, it is highly unusual for a vice president to disassociate himself from the collective responsibilities of his own administration and expressed surprise at an excerpt from Dr. Bawumia's recent media encounter, where the Vice President seemed to distance himself from his party's record.
"This is the first time I'm seeing a Vice President running away from his President's track record," Mahama stated.
He argued that Dr. Bawumia cannot separate himself from the government’s failures while only claiming credit for its successes.
"Government is a continuum; government is a whole; government is a collective," Mahama emphasised, adding that democratic governance is a shared responsibility.
Mahama further criticised the NPP leader for being quick to claim success but denying responsibility for failures.
Drawing from his own experience as head of the Economic Management Team under President Mills, Mr Mahama noted, "When the budget was going to Parliament, it was in the name of Prof. Mills, but I never disowned it."
Mr Mahama condemned Dr. Bawumia’s recent remarks that the budget presented to Parliament bears only the President’s name and not his, which he used to absolve himself of the government's shortcomings.
Mahama argued that the budget is a collective cabinet decision, and it is disingenuous for Bawumia to now distance himself from the government's economic failures while taking credit for its successes.
