'We thought we had done enough' – John Mahama on 2016 defeat

Former President John Dramani Mahama has cited complacency on the part of his government and members of his party as a major cause of their overwhelming defeat in the 2016 polls.

According to him, though his government worked relentlessly, they became complacent at a point, thinking that their work would speak for itself whenever they are held to account.

Recounting some instances that preceded his overwhelming defeat in the 2016 general elections, John Mahama attributed the distaste of Ghanaians for his government to the political propaganda of his opponents.

He said; “There’s a certain reality in politics…you know the social media space now and political propaganda. Now parties hire specialists to try and bring down the reputation of their political opponents…we didn’t really realise the impact on our elections…”

Adding; “We also thought that we had done enough to be re-elected so some complacency set in on the part of our own party activists and so in many places you go and they say ‘this election we’ve won already’ because we fulfilled our promises…”

John Mahama also attributed his defeat to his government’s inability to firmly nib the issue of employment and income generation in the bud.

But discussing some of his recent campaign tours aimed at recapturing power, he said the feedback he has received has been impressive and remains hopeful for a better outcome in this upcoming poll.

He said “Everywhere we go, the message is well received, we have a lot of people coming out with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement and the chiefs have received us warmly. They’ve expressed appreciation for the work we did when we were in government.”

“The more I got around the prouder, I feel that we did a lot to transform the lives of the people,” he added.