Central region angry with Mahama

-Accuse him of denigrating legacy of Mills

The continuous claim by President John Dramani Mahama that he has used the last four years to lay a foundation for the national economy is said to have angered many people in the Central Region, where he is currently campaigning for re-election.

The people are angry with the president because they consider his claims as a subtle attempt to denigrate what the late President John Evans Atta Mills achieved for the country in his three and half years in office, before his mysterious and sudden death.

Addressing a rally at Apam Junction in the Central Region, Monday, President Mahama told the people he had used the last four years of the second term of the National Democratic Congress government to lay a foundation for the economy, and so he deserves another term to continue with his "transformational agenda."

Meanwhile, during the 2012 electioneering campaign, the same President Mahama told the nation he and the late President Mills had laid a solid foundation for the economy and so the NDC government needed another term to deliver prosperity to the the nation, and "put money into the pockets" of the people from 2012.

The president's current claim that he has used the last four years to lay a foundation, and so needs another four years to build upon it, has therefore left many people in the Central Region wondering about the kind of message he is seeking to put across about the government of the late President Mills in which he served as the Vice President and Chairman of the Economic Management Team.

"Some of us particularly do not understand why President Mahama should be telling us that he has used the last four years to build a foundation for the economy. This is because he himself knows the state of the economy he inherited from the late President Mills was better than what he's given the nation today. He therefore should have used the last four years to erect the super-structure to deliver to improve on the lives of the people. But that is not what we are seeing; we are rather seeing a reverse of that. Now, to turn round to tell us you have used the last four years to lay a foundation means the economy had collapsed under Mills before you took over, and some of us find that very insulting to the memory of our late Mills," Ejaku Egyire told the Daily Statesman yesterday.

The 65-year old retired educationist added: "I can tell you that many people in the Region are not happy about the way President Mahama has been going about his campaign, creating the impression that nothing was achieved by the late President Mills. The fact of the matter is that most of the projects President Mahama and his people are boasting about were either completed or initiated under the late Mills. But they speak as if all happened in the last four years, as if the country was at a standstill, or had collapsed, when Mills was alive."

In the view of Frank Nana Benyin, an accountant at the Ghana Education Service, "If President Mahama says he has used the last four years to lay the foundation, then he is telling us the late Mills did nothing throughout the three and half years that he served as the president. Or it can also mean that the late Mills destroyed the solid economy he inherited from former President Kufuor."

Nana Benyin added: "Let's even grant that former President Kufuor did not leave behind a good economy. Is President Mahama saying he as the then Vice President could not help the late President Mills to lay the foundation in the first three and half years that Mills was alive? If he now says that was not the case, then he is simply confirming that he is indeed incompetent because he was the Chairman of the Economic Management Team under the Mills regime."

Maame Esi Davenport, a native of Cape Coast and a student of the Central University College, wants President Mahama to at least show some respect to the memory of the late President Mills since he was the one who gave him the opportunity to become the President.

"I find it difficult to understand President Mahama sometimes. To say you have now built the foundation simply means Atta Mills as President virtually did nothing. He could have done our late President a bit of honour by even saying they built the foundation together when he was the veep. But to totally make it look like late President Mills even never existed is very distasteful," a visibly unhappy Davenport said.

President Mahama, Monday, told the people of Central Region at Apam Junction: "Another candidate is going around telling people to allow him build on my solid foundation but that will not be possible. I have laid the foundation and I should be the one to continue building on that foundation."

Yesterday at Abura, he promised to give each household one electricity meter. "In Abura, I know your major concern is about electricity. A lot of you do not have meters. In most of the houses, the meters are shared. So I've asked that 1500 meters should be made available to you so that each house will have one meter," President Mahama added.

He also promised to fix some roads in the area, particularly the community's Taxi rank which has huge potholes.

"When I came here, your elders told me that the taxi rank has been destroyed. We have given the road on contract so very soon, the contractor will come on site and he will polish the taxi rank with some of the asphalt," the president said.