The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has called on President John Dramani Mahama to know that blatant abuse of incumbency and using state resources for his partisan NDC campaign for the presidency is against the Principle of Incorruptible Leadership.
According to a statement issued by PPP, in Tamale, President Mahama and the NDC demonstrated their insensitivity to all the concerns being expressed by political parties, religious leaders and civil societies in general about the abuse of incumbency.
“The NDC and the President have designed and executed a disingenuous way to introduce John Mahama to the people dressed up as a thank you tour for how Ghanaians mourned the passing of our late President.? Reports from the northern part of the country indicate that thousands of Ghana Cedis were distributed to Chiefs, other traditional and opinion leaders to travel to Tamale to attend a durbar in honour of President Mahama.”
“We are told of petrol filling stations in Tamale that were contracted to supply free fuel to motorcycle riders.? People were bused in to Tamale from all over the region.? Refreshment of all types were provided free of charge to thousands of people.? Ministers of State and government officials at all levels were there in official vehicles fueled by the taxpayers.”
PPP wanted to know, Who is paying for all this expenditure, saying that there are huge billboards of His Excellency John Mahama and former president Prof. Atta-Mills ostensibly put up to promote and give advantage to ?the candidacy of the former in the 2012 elections. “Who is paying for these billboards? Is it at the expense of the tax payer? Will this ensure peace unity in Ghana when one party gets undue advantage for being in government?? This is not the road to free and fair elections.? Cheating does not only take place on the day of voting.? This is how the process goes.”
“A few days ago, we had the occasion to state that when state owned media provides extensive coverage to the NDC government?s programmes and activities and give unfair advantage to the party in power against other political parties, it presents a barrier to unity. We called for the correction of that anomaly to ensure peace and unity in the country.? Unfortunately, President Mahama and his NDC party have decided to turn a deaf ear to all concerned and rather are enjoying this abuse of incumbency.”
These have given concern to the PPP which has decided to call on the President to live up to the principles of transparency and accountability, stressing that “Dr. Nduom set the agenda for the 2012 campaign with the strong commitment for incorruptible leadership and competency. ?For the benefit of President Mahama and the NDC, we reproduce the challenge thrown by Dr. Nduom: ?Introduce amendments to the 1992 Constitution that will make three critical changes for progress in Ghana,?prohibit Members of Parliament from being appointed as Minsters of State, return the power to the people for all Ghanaians to directly elect their district, municipal and metropolitan chief executives without any interference from the President and 3) strengthen the office of District Attorney by separating it from the Ministry of Justice.
PPP also stated that the ?party is ready to fulfill its promise ?of making available to the public asset declarations, income tax returns, health records and sources of campaign funding before the December 7th elections.
