President John Mahama has accused his opposite number in the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of running away from a one-on-one debate.
According to Mr Mahama, despite a litany of accusations and allegations of corruption levelled against him and his government by Nana Akufo-Addo, the flag bearer of the NPP has failed to make himself available to a two-man debate over those same issues.
“I have challenged him (Akufo-Addo) to a debate, I have said bring all these points you are raising one by one and let us have a debate. Let me and you debate to the Ghanaian public about the points you are raising; inflation, infrastructure and things. But he has run away,” Mr Mahama told Ovation International in an exclusive interview.
Below is the transcript in connection with his response to the opposition NPP’s corruption allegations:
Ovation: Another topical issue is corruption. They say President Mahama and his government officials have stolen all their money. How would you react to this allegation
Mahama: It is absolutely untrue (President Mahama leans forward in his seat). I have responded to them (the opposition and all those making the allegation). I have said that some people have become political Quantity Surveyors. You can make an assessment of a project, only if you know the scope of work of that project.
Their own flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo said Kasoa Interchange was overpriced. A Member of Parliament from his own party came out and said he does not know what he is talking about because he did not know the scope of the project.
His thinking of Kasoa Interchange is that it is just a bridge. Kasoa Interchange is made up of three bridges. There is a main interchange and then two bridges to enable the people of East Kasoa and West Kasoa cross to the other halves of the city.
So if you hear an interchange and you just look at the price without being a quantity Surveyor, you are not an Engineer, you are just a Lawyer, you come out and say that it is overpriced, on what basis are you making your judgement?
The Kasoa Interchange includes 20 kilometres of inner city roads within Kasoa Town. We felt don’t just build an interchange; let it also have an impact on the people. Therefore, we are building 20 kilomteres of Asphalt roads within the Ga South District. We are building a brand new polyclinic with a complete Accident and Trauma Centre, so when people have accidents on the road, the nearest hospitals are Korle Bu in Accra and Winneba.
By the time you rush anyone there, some of them would have died, so we said it would be useful to have that polyclinic. It also includes three Millennium Schools while 20 communities in Ga South District are getting clean drinking water as part of the interchange. And so, without looking at the scope, you say the project is overpriced?
This kind of propaganda has become the sing song of the opposition because they cannot fault the massive social infrastructural interventions we are making, they cannot fault the amount of work that is going on all over the country, they have nothing to say but spill lies.
I am sure that real Ghanaians who are benefitting from these our interventions know the truth and cannot be deceived by empty words or comments that have no facts.
It has become a political strategy of the opposition to counter everything being done by alleging that everything is inflated.
Most of these works are being done by tender. And I have given a directive that where a tender is not held or it is not possible to hold the tender, there should be value for money audit conducted. These projects are subjected to value for money audit.
There are some projects that you necessarily must sole source because the money came from a certain country and they expect that contractor who sourced the funds would have to execute the job. And to ensure the people are not short changed we insist that we do value for money. Crown Agents is the one that does the Value for Money audit.
The Ridge Hospital is one of those projects that he (Akufo-Addo) openly said was overpriced.
The Ridge Hospital is one of those projects that went for value for money, and the value for money saved us $40 million. The Crown Agents said that we can apply the $40 million on additional expansion work on the Ridge Hospital, and so the scope of the hospital was expanded because of the value for money that was undertaken, and yet you point at the $40 million and say it was an inflated contract. You see my point?
And he said they built roads at $300 million. I don’t know where he got that figure from and that we are building roads at more than $1 million per kilometre. Every road has its own scope and that is why you do the design.
There will be marshy areas where you have to scoop out all the clay and marsh and dump some rocks there. And so if you are doing a kilometre of road over land like that, it will be far more expensive than a kilometre of road over rocks, so no two roads are comparable.
Roads have different specifications, you can ask them to use asphalt of a certain thickness because you do not have articulated trucks running on that road. There are other roads you ask for higher thickness because the load on the road is heavier.
If you are working on this road in front of my house, the asphalt thickness would be like this (demonstrates) very thin, because no heavy truck comes down this road, but if I am doing a highway, then I need to raise the asphalt to a very high thickness. So if you say, comparatively, roads were cheaper in this time than that time, what is the basis for such comparison?
Every road depends on design and conditions over which the road is crossing. Is it an existing road? That means it has a base already, or is it a virgin road, in which case you are cutting a new road, carving it out, which will entail clearing the forest and cutting the road through. So it is difficult to understand his statement.
I have challenged him (Akufo-Addo) to a debate, I have said bring all these points you are raising one by one and let us have a debate. Let me and you debate to the Ghanaian public about the points you are raising; inflation, infrastructure and things. But he has run away.
Ovation: (Cuts in) But the story is that you are the one running from a debate
How can I run from a debate? I want a productive debate, one-on-one with Nana Akufo-Addo. What they are talking about is the IEA. I want a debate on all the contentious issues he has raised. And I will respond and Ghanaians will be the judge.
Source: Classfmonline
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Mr. president you said you can't think far. You should start thinking far and fast because Nana and Ghanaians are thinking very very Far. You should better embrace the advice of Amissah Arthur and start doing the thinking.
One thing that makes me hate John Mahama is his blatant lies. Your party wrote to IEA that you as a candidate will not engage anyone in debates so where from this. I am sure there is something wrong with him. Does he think all Ghanaians have short memories like his followers.
For Mahama to say such a thing, i think he must be on drugs because i dont think Nana will run away from debating such an incompetent chap, like JM
Is governance a debate? You cannot turn the administration of this country into a mere communication and propaganda. You are just trying to be fast by finding a way to deceive Ghanaians with your quick rattle but I tell you our eyes are wide open. We don't need a debate to know the level of your failure. I bet you can never get a debate because your time is up. #message is here#
you mean nana is just a lawyer? and who are you? a ***barred word*** ready to be made chinchinga. abooooowa
is this man ok? was it him and his party that ran away from the IEA debate? is this man dreaming or under the influence of some drug or something? which kind of debate is he talking abt? the one that will be moderated by the drunk asiedu nketia or who? they (ndc) knows majority of the electorates dont vote on issues so they have nothing to loose avoiding debate so why do you want nana to debate you in a debate to be moderate by drunks and cr1m1nals.
are u not blind in your eyes, nose, ears and bones?
This old ***barred word*** Nana is sick and can even stand so JM contine S O
Whether Nana comes for the debate or not, I JDM would win this election. The people of Volta and my northern extracts would massively vote for me. They care less about development, they just love the party. I would continue to use and dump them. Hehehehehehehe....
The Ghanaian citizens are to be blamed for whatever situation we find ourselves in. We are always looking for immediate gratifications. Therefore, the various political parties would take advantage of that an make empty promises to the electorate and surprisingly we fall for that. Where lies our thinking cap my fellow Ghanaians? Why are we waiting for the political parties to come and clean our gutters for us? Why are we relying on political parties to put money in our pockets? We always want this or that...meanwhile when you go the various work places what do you see the workers there doing ...some just loitering around as if they have nothing to and they are paid with tax payers money at the end of the month. Mother Ghana is for you and I, not any sitting government with the numerous empty promises. Whatever they promise is not constant because they themselves do not know the future holds for Ghana though they may have the best intention to move the country forward. We have refused to put on our thinking caps and left it up to the politicians to decide whether you live or die. Are they God? Where lies our thinking cap? We need to think for ourselves, and not rely on political parties to make Ghana a great country.