Mahama shames Bature: I was prepared for the presidency

Contrary to assertions by certain people including the Managing Editor of the Al-Hajj newspaper, Alhaji Bature Idrissu, that His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama has not been adequately prepared for the Ghanaian Presidency, the President has indicated otherwise.

In a 15 page interview publish in the current issue of the Pan-African Magazine, Africawtach, the President said; “I believe that the presidency was a challenge that I was prepared for. I have been a member of parliament for 12 years. I have been a deputy minister. I have been a minister. I have been a vice president, and today I’m a president. So I’m quite familiar with issues of governance”.

Diffusing the negative mindset of Alhaji Bature towards his reign; and very optimistic to overcome the challenges that his government is confronted with, President Mahama indicated that “I am determined to do what I can do to bring positive change into the lives of the people of Ghana. I have their mandate to do so, and I can’t let them down."

Unlike Bature would want Ghanaians to believe that the economic challenges facing the current administration are not surmountable, the President, in his interview with the Africawatch, revealed that “we are doing something in the short-term to alleviate the hardships.

We are not just sleeping on the job. We are strengthening our social protection measures, so we are increasing the number of households we hitherto had under the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP)”.

According to the president, the 75,000 households currently on the LEAP program will be increased to 150,000, where cash grants will be made available to these families to send their children to school.

President John Mahama pointed out that, apart from the reliefs the program will afford parents in terms of educating their children, obtaining of health insurance and free medical care, it presents to parents, mostly mothers, a little micro-credit to be given them to invest in a small-scale business and to be able to do a lot of the essential things in life.

But claiming to know better than the President and his economic management team, Alhaji Bature Idrissu requested from Ghanaians to be tolerant with the present administration as President Mahama struggles with the warren of challenges facing the country.

To buttress his rather wrong assertion of the President, the Managing Editor of the Al-Hajj newspaper was reported to have said that President John Mahama ‘was not prepared for the higher office but only became president by constitutional arrangement to finish with the unexpired term of Mills’ administration’.

According to him, President Mahama was not psyched up to take the mantle of leadership after the untimely demise of President Mills, revealing that rather, he was being prepared and groomed rather for 2016.