Former President John Dramani Mahama has outlined two areas he said would be the “order of work” if he wins the 2024 elections.
The orders, Mr Mahama said would be the restoration of the economy and repairing the governance system of the country, which he claimed had been destroyed by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party government.
Addressing party faithfuls at the National Democratic Congress(NDC) party headquarters, in Accra yesterday, after going through vetting, the former president said the opposition party must unite after the May 13 primaries to ensure the NDC won the 2024 general elections.
“We are going to have two new agendas for the next NDC government. The first one will be to take steps to revitalise our economy and put it back on its feet and repair our governance systems,” he said.
According to former President and NDC flagbearer hopeful, the opposition party returned Ghana to a sustainable path of growth only for the Akufo-Addo regime to derail the economic gains made over the years.
“Having served under Professor John Evans Atta-Mills and my own full term, we all saw how we managed our economy.
“For the first time in the history of Ghana, in 2016, we financed the Government of Ghana budget without a single cedi from the Bank of Ghana.
“Today, this (NPP) administration owes the Bank of Ghana GH¢50 billion.
“We are going to bring discipline into our finances. That is the first order of work we have to do,” the former president said.
He said “the second order of work is to repair our governance systems to guarantee that the media can work freely without harassment from any quarters, to guarantee that corruption would be fought without the President clearing anybody, to guarantee that anti-corruption institutions will have the free mandate to carry out their duty against anybody, whoever you are, to make sure civil society organisations have space to express themselves without fear or favour, and to ensure that we review our constitution to make it a more dynamic document to take us into the future.”
Wishing all parliamentary aspirants the best of luck, Mr Mahama was optimistic party delegates would elect “very good persons,” who would translate into the majority caucus in the ninth parliament to execute the agenda of the future government.
Mr Mahama urged colleagues in the presidential primaries race to put their differences behind “after I have emerged as the presidential candidate” and rally together to ensure NDC won the general elections.
Having picked nominations, filed and gone through vetting, the next item on the presidential primaries election calendar of the party would be the balloting ahead of the May 13 contest.
Mr Mahama was accompanied by his 2020 campaign manager, Professor Joshua Alabi, Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the party, Emmanuel NiiAshie Moore, Dr Valery Sawyer, a former Deputy Chief of Staff and Dr Peter BoamahOtukunor and a host of Members of Parliament.
The former President faces competition from DrKwabenaDuffuor, a former governor of the Bank of Ghana and former Finance Minister, KojoBonsu, a former mayor of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and businessman, Ernest KwakuKobea.