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Former President, John Dramani Mahama, the presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress, is courting the support of the Muslim community as he seeks to make a comeback to the seat of government.
According to the former President, the NDC best represents the interest of the Muslim community and should be given another chance at the polls on Saturday December 7, 2024.
At a special prayer session with the Muslim community in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, yesterday as part of his campaign in the region, Mr Mahama stated that the NDC had demonstrated overtime that it had the Muslim community at heart.
For example, he said it was during an NDC regime under the late President Jerry John Rawlings that the Islamic Education Unit was created to inculcate Islamic beliefs and practices in Ghana’s educational curriculum.
Additionally, he noted that it was an NDC government which ensured a holiday for Muslims was instituted for their Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha and would introduce two more for Muslims if elected president again.
As president, he emphasised 67 Muslims were among 400 Ghanaians who got scholarships to study medicine in Cuba, 200 more to study in Turkey, a friendly hajj pilgrimage arrangements, and numerous Islamic schools.
Should he win the election, Mr Mahama said his next government would construct a permanent Hajj Village and ensure Muslims in the Ashanti region and in the middle
belt flew from Kumasi to Mecca to perform their Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Saturday’s elections, the former president further said, was not about who is a Muslim or a
Christian but who has demonstrated commitment to the welfare of Muslims and the capacity to return the economy to the path of progress.
In the view of the former president, Ghana’s economy has never been this badly managed and that he would need the support of all Ghanaians to repair the economy.
“The economy has been damaged beyond repairs but we have to repair it. It won’t be easy. There is a lot of work to be done but with the support of all Ghanaians, we can return our economy to the path of growth,” Mr Mahama outlined in Twi.
He accused the Akufo-Addo government of engaging in frivolities in the management of the loans they have contracted on behalf of the people.
“If I got US$11.5 billion in Eurobonds as this government has done, Ghana would have been transformed but they wasted the money on unproductive ventures.
“All the work I did in government including the terminal three, the new Tema port, hospitals, railway and the others cost us US$3.5 billion,” he stressed
