Flashback: Ghanaians insult me when angry with their wives, husbands – Mahama

Exactly four years ago in 2016, President John Dramani Mahama observed that most citizens abuse him on the airwaves when they have unresolved issues with their partners.

Mr. Mahama who was then the country’s President said most people vented their spleen on him by raining insults on his persona during media discourse.

Speaking to a gathering of Ghanaian citizens living in London at that time, Mr. Mahama said:

“Perception can be heightened because is being discussed long in the media. And When you have a country like Ghana where everybody is free to discuss corruption, if you wake up and you are angry with your husband or wife you take it out on the President, abuse him on the radio, when you have that kind of society, there are all kinds of issues that come up,”

‘And then we have the addition of social media, because of the anonymity, people just fix some blatant lies and put it on WhatsApp. And sometimes they are so creative and I said these people the way they are creative if they channel this creativity into lucrative thing Ghana would not be where it is. They would create something about you and if it is not because I am myself and I know that it is not true anybody who sees it would believe it. We have all that floating in the system and all that so it heightens people’s perception about corruption. And so it is easy to say that there is more corruption in this regime than in that regime, where would comparison of between corruption take us it won’t take us anywhere,’ he added.

Read the full article as first published by Ultimatefmonline below:

President John Dramani Mahama has observed that people abuse him on the airwaves when they have unresolved issues with their partners.

He believes most people vent their spleen on him by raining insults on his persona daily on media discourse.

According to him, people use corruption as political propaganda without backing their claims with facts.

‘Perception can be heightened because is being discussed long in the media. And When you have a country like Ghana where everybody is free to discuss corruption, if you wake up and you are angry with your husband or wife you take it out on the President, abuse him on the radio, when you have that kind of society, there are all kinds of issues that come up,’ he stated.

He accused people of using social media to heighten people’s perception about corruption in Ghana.

‘And then we have the addition of social media, because of the anonymity, people just fix some blatant lies and put it on WhatsApp. And sometimes they are so creative and I said these people the way they are creative if they channel this creativity into lucrative thing Ghana would not be where it is. They would create something about you and if it is not because I am myself and I know that it is not true anybody who sees it would believe it. We have all that floating in the system and all that so it heightens people’s perception about corruption. And so it is easy to say that there is more corruption in this regime than in that regime, where would comparison of between corruption take us it won’t take us anywhere,’ he emphasised.

Speaking to a gathering of Ghanaian citizens living in London, he called for proper systems to check corruption in Ghana.

The President challenged Ghanaians to be bold in naming and shaming state officials involved in corruption.

‘The important thing is to put in the systems that prevent corruption is taking place. Have the political willingness to expose it and investigate it and sanction it and I have said I am willing if any allegations are made a lot of times somebody comes and says oh this guy he is stealing and I ask him how do you know eer you put your ears on the ground.

Your ministers are all thieves, which one tell me so that I can get the person, ‘na wonte’ you don’t listen you are not listening to these things. You know, you need to deal with it in a more systematic manner and that’s why we are putting in place legislation that protects whistleblowers because whistleblowers are important,’ he said.

He assured that the Attorney General’s (AG) department is working assiduously on the whistle blower’s amendment bill and witness protection scheme for easy flow of information.

‘The person who sees corruption happening, you must put in the regulation that ensures that when he has blown the whistle, he is protected,’ he said.