We'll tidy up your mess - Mahama tells Akufo-Addo

Former President John Dramani Mahama says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has what it takes to clean up the “mess” and “rot” created by the Akufo-Addo regime.

Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Adjei Kojo in the Tema West Constituency on Thursday, October 29 as part of his five-day campaign tour of the Greater Accra Region, the NDC leader said his party is very much aware of the “mess” that has been created by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government since assuming office in January 2017.

He was surprised at how the Akufo-Addo regime ended up creating this given that it inherited a sound economy from the Mahama administration.

“In 2016, I passed the ESLA which is the Energy Sector Levy Act and that act alone in 2017 brought GH¢3 billion. And who inherited that money? President Akufo-Addo inherited that money. “I set up the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) and I put seed money of $270 million and I left it to President Akufo-Addo. Where is the money? When Covid happened, but for the Stabilisation Fund that was set up in my time, the GH¢1.2 billion that they had taken from the Covid fund to provide food for the people, to provide PPEs for people and stimulus packages for people, if I hadn’t set the Fund, we wouldn’t have gotten that GH¢1.2 billion,” he said.

Mr Mahama said his government also left behind more than $300 million in the Sinking Fund, adding all of these are verifiable.

“How much is he going to leave for President Mahama in 2021?” he wondered.

Mr Mahama said the Akufo-Addo regime has emptied the coffers of GIIF and has made no contribution to both the Sinking Fund and the Stabilisation Fund.

He added that the Akufo-Addo government has rather succeeded in mortgaging the energy sector levy for the next 10 to 15 years, including the GETFund which government has also mortgaged for 10 years, he claimed.

“And so he is rather going to leave a mess to the new NDC government that is coming after 2021. But like I said, let us never give up hope because we are masters at turning things around. We will inherit a mess but by God’s grace, we will turn things around.”