4 days ago
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President-elect John Dramani Mahama has said the sweeping defeat of the outgoing government should be a lesson to the political parties.
He said the outcome of the poll has once again demonstrated that power belongs to the people and they decide who exercises same on their behalf.
In a meeting with some minority parties in his office in Accra yesterday, the President-elect diagnosed what may have caused the unprecedented defeat of the governing New Patriotic Party government.
“The outgoing government was punished for their arrogance, for their impunity, for their mismanagement and corruption despite the red flag being waved.
“Let it be a lesson to all of us that the people are the ultimate owners of power and they’ll give it to who they want to give it to,” he admonished.
Having been given another chance at the presidency, Mr Mahama said he and the National Democratic Congress takes the electoral victory with a huge sense of humility and modesty.
He said with dying confidence in Ghana’s democratic institutions, his incoming government remains the last bastion of democracy in the country and failure to do so could spell doom for it.
“Probably, this administration is our last chance to get things right because as has been shown by different Afrobarometer reports and other surveys, the confidence, especially of our youth in our democratic institutions is waning.
“This administration bears the responsibility on behalf of all political parties and other stakeholders to make a good job of it and begin the reset agenda…so that our people can benefit from the dividends of democracy.
“If we don’t do that, we are not immune from unconstitutional interventions like we have seen in neighbouring countries,” he warned.
To all those who would want to serve in his government or who would be called upon to carry out responsibility of public trust, Mr Mahama said they must be prepared to do so diligently knowing that the public is whom they serve and not lord it over them.
He assured of his readiness to work with the political parties and other stakeholders to ensure that the concerns of the people as has been codified in the surveys were addressed.
The parties which called on the President-elect were the All Peoples Congress (APC), the Peoples National Convention (PNC) and the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP).
On behalf of the parties, Dr Hassan Ayariga, the 2024 presidential candidate of the APC, entreated the President-elect to carry along Ghanaians on his reset agenda.
“The only way you can change people is when you involve them,” he said, adding that the NDC did not win the election because of how good its message was but because of the leadership failure of the NPP in the last eight years.
For Bernard Mornah of the PNC, Ghanaians heard the President-elect on taxes which would relieve them and the resolve to recover all stolen assets of the state and would be counting down.
He said the PNC would be available to assist the new government to deliver on its mandate and would not hesitate to call it out if it departs from its electioneering pledges
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
