Mahama goofed at re-denomination cost - Dr. Addai Mensah

A Senior Lecturer at the School of Medical Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Dr. Okyere Addai Mensah has lashed out at President John Dramani Mahama on his ‘goof’ comment regarding the cost involved in the redenomination exercise in 2007.

The President is quoted to have asked the running mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who was former Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG) to account for the redenomination exercise.

But speaking on Abusua FM’s Abusua Nkommo hosted by Kwame Adinkrah, a livid Dr.Addai said the President’s conduct is a mark of incompetence for him to be oblivious of money spent on the exercise.

The Lecturer wondered why the President who was a Vice President lacks such vital information only to turn round to ask Dr.Bawumia by embarrassing himself publicly.

‘The truth is that the President goofed, first of all, I have seen publications to the effect dated about 2007 explaining how much money was spent in the redenomination exercise, that is the first point, the second point is that as a President its smacks of incompetence if he comes out to tell us now that having being Vice President before and President. This far he doesn’t know how much was spent and has not done anything about it? Sometimes in your bid to spite someone, you end up spiting yourself,’ he said.

According to Dr. Addai, there was nothing wrong for Dr. Bawumia to point it out to the President that he was dragging his own image into public ridicule.

The Senior Lecturer at the School of Medical Sciences at KNUST said it was not insulting when Dr. Bawumia called the President to order.

‘Now what it looks like is when the President in every turn tries to answer every issue that has been raised either by Bawumia or Nana Akufo Addo…, it has not been insulting so far as I am concerned especially if Bawumia on a political platforms said that the President should stop embarrassing himself with the economics and he was spot on,…when Bawumia was talking economics, the President was talking English, an upgrade in English is a movement from a lower level to an upgrade level, but in Economics, its relates to moody….it’s a movement from a B minus to B plus. I don’t think it was insulting when he called the President to order.

Sometimes criticisms are hard yes, and those are allowed. Talking about insults, the President has the highest responsibility,’ he stated.

Touching on the upcoming 2016 elections, he expressed satisfaction that a section of politicians are now engaging in issue-based public discourse.

‘One of the things I am very happy about for us as a country is the fact that the 2016 election as in comparison to 2012 and earlier elections is gravitating towards an issue-based election,’ he remarked.

Dr. Addai observed that Ghanaians are discerning enough not to vote on personality looks, tribal lines but will vote based on competence, fairness among others.

‘Integrity, competence is very crucial in going into the election, the election is not about age, ideology, gimmickry, how handsome an individual is, it’s not a beauty pageant, it’s about competence, improvement in the lives of people, fairness, is about how food will be put on their tables,’ he said.