Our message is 'get out of power' – NPP to Mahama

Reduction in electricity tariffs, establishment of factories, ensuring fiscal discipline, and no allowance for impunity from officials who engage in corruption are among the plethora of messages the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has for Ghanaians ahead of the November 7 polls, and, so, President John Dramani Mahama cannot say the NPP has no message, Mr Freddie Blay, acting National Chairman of the party has said.

His comments come after Mr Mahama stated a day earlier that the NPP had no message and were, therefore, resorting to baseless accusations of graft against him.

Addressing a group of Ghanaians in Tema as part of his tour of the Greater Accra Region on Wednesday June 22, Mr Mahama said: “Elections are about telling the people what you want to do for them, and, so, I am going and telling the people what I intend to do. And, so, if you [opponents] think you can do better, you also go to the people and say what you will do if you are elected, but when you have no message [that is when]…you stick to allegations of corruption [which are] baseless. The constitution prescribes what should be done if a person is corrupt.

“I have been president of this country and if you believe I have been involved in corruption, you have the constitutional means to do what you want to do. But when you make baseless rumours and allegations, it won’t win you the presidency,” President Mahama further stated.

But speaking in an interview with Prince Minkah, host of the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Thursday June 23, Mr Blay said the presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, had, among other things, said he would reduce electricity tariffs, fight corruption, and establish factories in all the 216 districts, and so claims by Mr Mahama that the NPP had no message did not hold.

“Is it not a message that we will reduce the tariffs? Is it not a message that we will re-introduce the SHS free education? Is it not a message that we will provide every district a factory and an industry so that people will have jobs and have enough money in their pockets and feed their family? Is it not a message that we will bring smiles back on the faces of the suffering Ghanaians?” the former Ellembelle MP asked.

“We are not just saying all these things, we are explaining. … The presidential candidate, his vice, leading personalities of the party are going all over, our PCs (parliamentary candidates) are all over various constituencies and addressing the people and interacting with them and telling them that we have a solid team. If you don’t consider that [as] a message then I don’t know what the message should be again.”

Mr Blay further stated that: “The message is that he [Mr Mahama] should get out of power, the message is that he is telling Ghanaians the NDC has messed up the economy, they have not been able to fulfil their promise and that Ghanaians are out of a job.”