NDC New York applauds President Mahama

We of the NDC New York Chapter wish to extend our warmest congratulatory

message once again to His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, for the

exceptional and extraordinary debating skills he exhibited at the last in

the series of the IEA debate, among the presidential candidate for the

impending 2012 elections, which was held yesterday in Accra.

President Mahama really deserves to be commended for being the first ever

siting President to subject himself three times to such a rigorous and

probing enquiries by the people of Ghana, the moderators, as well as

unjustifiable attacks and criticism by his opponents, especially Nana Akufo Addo. But

as a communicator, he has been able to weather this turbulent storm of

attacks.

Anyone who watched the debate, regardless of his or her party affiliation

would undoubtedly conclude that, it was President John Mahama who carried

the day, by virtue of his factual, analytical and logical presentation

which injected real life into the discourse, as opposed to a mere verbal,

rhetorical and oratorical argument of Nana Akufo Addo which was full of

abstract analysis.

Various instant and instantaneous reactions from the social media, such as

twitter and facebook, point to the fact that, it was President Mahama who

had the commanding lead in the debate.

One could easily see disappointment written in the eyes of the NPP

members, in the audience. Even one of their bigwigs like Arthur Kennedy, confessed

in an interview right after the debate at the Banquet Hall that, President

Mahama won the debate against Nana Akufo Addo. And the straw that broke

the camel’s back, was Hassan Ayariga, reference to the NPP’s Nana Mantra, “

All die be die”, “Yen Akanfo…” in his closing argument, which Nana Addo

desperately tried to rebut, but was denied the chance by the moderator

because he had his turn already. This was a collateral damage to Nana Addo and

the NPP, because at these final hours to the elections, what Ayariga,

re-echoed will be ringing bell in the minds of the electorate as they make their

ways to the ballot box.

One of the interesting instances was on a question regarding Ghana’s

foreign policy, where Nana Addo, who once served as Ghana’s foreign affairs

minister, made an unfounded allegation and the President put him on his toes,

which actually exposed his ignorance of the current state of Ghana’s foreign

policy.

President Mahama in the last debate reminds us of a similar situation in

the USA when President Barrack Obama trashed his opponent, Mitt Romney and

went on to win the elections!

Husseini Y. Baba AlWaiz, Press Secretary, NDC New York