According to Nana Akufo-Addo, in the face of an abysmal record in office, which has led to widespread hardship and suffering amongst the people, the only option left for the current regime is to embark on an abusive campaign against him, the latest being that he is suffering from cancer.
“The President and those who speak for him are today in a difficult situation in Ghana. They want to have a third term in office. But, instead of telling us about all the things they promised to do, so that we can decide whether or not to grant them the third term (I,e, being in office for 12 years), they can’t do that,” he said.
Cataloguing a litany of President Mahama’s broken promises, Nana Akufo-Addo recounted how the NDC promised a “one time premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme,” and have reneged on this promise, 8 years after making it. Worse still, the NPP flagbearer noted that “not only did this promise not materialize, but they have collapsed the NHIS.”
He continued, “He (President Mahama) told us he was going to build 200 community day senior high schools. According to his Finance Minister, he has been able to build 9. He told us in 2012 that ‘dumsor’ will be over by 2013. We are in 2016, and ‘dumsor’ is still with us in Ghana. President Mahama was here in the North last week, and not once did he speak about SADA, because SADA has become a monumental failure.”
In light of this, the NPP flagbearer was not surprised that “the President has made me his campaign. I am his campaign in Ghana today.”
He counselled NPP supporters and the Ghanaian electorate that “as defeat stares him (President Mahama) in the face, the language against me is going to go (a notch) higher and higher and higher, because it is clear to the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians that on the 7th of December, we are going to say to John Dramani Mahama, ‘Thank you and goodbye’.”
Nana Akufo-Addo then went on to read out a long list of lies and abuse meted out to him by spokespersons and apologists of the regime over the years, all in their ‘desperate’ bid to malign him and sully his reputation before the Ghanaian electorate.
“First they said I was a drug addict, it didn’t work. They said I was sick, it didn’t work. They said I was too old, it didn’t work. They said I was a hunchback, it didn’t work. They said I was a dwarf, it didn’t work. They said I was in a wheelchair, it didn’t work. They said I am a murderer, it didn’t work. They said I will die in June, it didn’t work,” he said.
Continuing, he added that “They said I was a dictator, it didn’t work. They said I was intolerant, it didn’t work. They said I was violent, it didn’t work. They said I had a secret agenda to destabilize the country, it didn’t work. Now, they say I have cancer, it will not work.”
The NPP flagbearer stressed further that “it appears the only way the President will get a third term is when I am sick or I am dead. That is the only ground on which he will get his third term.”
Unperturbed by this, Nana Akufo-Addo told the thousands of residents gathered at a rally in Bolgatanga, on Sunday, August 28, that “issues of life and death and health are in the hands of the Almighty.
I will leave matters in the hands of the Almighty, because, I believe and I continue to say the battle is the Lord’s.”
He appealed to the residents of Bolgatanga to give him and the NPP their unalloyed support in this year’s elections, with the solemn pledge that, should this happen, “we are going to transform Bolgatanga, we are going transform the Upper East and we are going to transform Ghana, so we can bring jobs and prosperity to our nation.”
Ghanaians, according to Nana Akufo-Addo “are not a poor people. Ghana is not a poor country, and there is no reason why our people should be suffering like they are suffering now. Let us substitute and bring in good leadership and you will see that it will not be long, the face of our nation will change and the circumstances of our country will improve.”