Mahama, Akufo-Addo Cross Swords Over Congratulation Message

The Former President and Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has reacted to President Akufo-Addo’s Constitutional Day broadcast in which he said Mr Mahama has not congratulated him three years after his re-election victory in 2020.

In his broadcast to the nation ahead of the Constitutional Day, January 7, 2024, President Akufo-Addo said “On a lighter note, three (3) years on, I am still waiting for my main opponent [John Mahama] in the 2020 elections to congratulate me on my victory.

In a reaction to the President’s comments in his post on social media, Mr Mahama said it was “unconscionable” that three years after tragic events in Election 2020, President Akufo-Addo has also not “uttered even a word of sympathy.”

According to Mr. Mahama “On a rather sad note, it is unconscionable that three years after these tragic events, our President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has not uttered even a word of sympathy to the bereaved families. The perpetrators of these murders continue to walk as free men and still hold on to positions of authority and power”.

Mahama’s comments follow some disturbances in the Techiman South constituency of the Bono East Region during the 2020 elections which resulted in the firing of gunshots following an intervention by the security personnel deployed to maintain law and order.

Thereafter, President Akufo-Addo in his victory speech condemned the violence recorded at Techiman and another one at Odododiodoo during the 2020 general elections and said it should not repeat itself.

But Mr. Mahama claimed the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has not uttered even a word of sympathy to the bereaved families, forgetting that President Akufo-Addo delivering his victory speech in which he said the country must work to avoid the repetition of such events in the future.

“I condemn in no uncertain terms the isolated incidents of post-electoral violence in Odododiodioo and Techiman that led to a few regrettable deaths. May their souls rest in peace. We must work to avoid the repetition of such events in the future,” President Akufo-Addo said in December 2020.

President Akufo-Addo in his broadcast to the nation ahead of the Constitutional Day, January 7, 2024, noted that all stakeholders, that is the Electoral Commission, the political parties and their leaders, the electorate, and the citizenry, should work to ensure the consolidation of Ghanaian democracy and help the country maintain the pride of place on the continent as a model of democracy in Africa.

According to the President by common consent, all well-meaning Ghanaians have agreed that the democratic form of governance is the most preferable, and all must do everything possible to guarantee the longevity of the 4th Republic.

He explained that at the end of it all, there should be no lingering doubt about the legitimacy of the election, and the winning candidates, after the process, should receive the unalloyed support of all, adding that, that is how we can strengthen our democracy and the peace and stability of our nation.

Source: Daniel Bampoe