Why I lost 2016 polls - Mahama explains

Former President John Mahama seem to be smarting from the humiliating defeat he suffered in the hands of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa almost one year after his exist as president of the country.

This time, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2016 presidential candidate believes he lost the presidential bid to Nana Addo because he failed to make juicy promises to the electorates.

According to him, he had all the opportunities to compete with the NPP for the wildest promises during the 2016 polls but declined the temptation and turned down suggestions to follow that trajectory.

Nana Addo was declared Ghana’s 5th President of the Fourth Republic after an impressive performance in the 2016 presidential poll.

The three-time lucky NPP leader polled 5,716,026 to beat incumbent President John Mahama who had 4,713, 277.

The declaration of Nana Akufo-Addo as winner of the election brought to an end the era of the ‘John’ presidency which saw John Rawlings, John Kufuor, John Mills and John Mahama all taking their turn as president from 1992 to 2016.

But Former President Mahama speaking at the NDC’s Unity Walk in Tarkwa in the Western Region over the weekend attributed his defeat to his inability to make empty promises.

He claimed that several people came to tell him to make promises as was done by the NPP insisting he was not trained to make empty promises.

Mr. Mahama had taken on the then NPP presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over his many campaign promises, describing him as desperate man.

Mr Akufo-Addo had promised to provide free senior high school (SHS) education, make available $1million to each of the 275 constituencies, construct one factory in each of the 216 districts and abolish some nuisance taxes.

Ex-president Mahama said he cringed when that promise was made because as president then, he knew the state coffers was not healthy to support that ambitious plan.

“We were in government and we said it is not possible,” he said of the $1million-to-each-constituency promise.

He said his values in life are similarly shared by all NDC members and that prevents them from making promises they will not be able to fulfill.

“NDC is a party that doesn’t lie [and] what we can’t do, we won’t say we will do and what we say we will, we do them,” he said, adding Ghanaians are now disappointed with the government.