Former President John Dramani Mahama has asserted that the only individuals claiming that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are similar are disillusioned NPP members.
During an interview on the KSM show, Mahama, who is the presidential candidate of the NDC for the 2024 elections, emphasized that there is no basis for comparing the NPP to his party, as the NDC’s track record speaks for itself.
He further urged NPP members to refrain from making such claims and instead face the consequences of the actions their party has taken, which, according to him, have led to challenges in Ghana.
“It is NPP propaganda… they are in their mess and want to draw everybody else into the same mess. You’ve messed the country up.
“Not all politicians are the same. But they’re happy to push that mantra and make it look like Oh, whether NDC comes or NPP comes, you’re better off staying with us because when NDC comes it will be the same.
“That is the psychology of the propaganda they are doing. We are not the same,” he told veteran journalist Kwaku Sintim-Misa (KSM).
During his comparison of the NDC and NPP’s records in various sectors, the former president highlighted the educational sector.
He pointed out that the NDC has been responsible for constructing all the public universities in Ghana, while the NPP, in contrast, has only renamed them without significant infrastructure development.
“We have given more Ghanaians electricity than any party in the history of this country. Rolling started the national electrification program, and the rural electrification program, which has brought Ghana to above 80% electricity coverage.
“In our time we’ve given more Ghanaians water than any party in the history of this country. When proof came into office water coverage was 55%.
“By the time I left office, water coverage was 72%. We have built all the public universities in this country, NPP hasn’t built one public university, they’re just good at renaming them with their party figures,” he said.
He added that Ghana’s digitalising agenda which the NPP drags off started under his watch when he was the Minister of Communications.
“We started the digital revolution in this country. I was Minister of Communications when we divided posts and telecommunications and created Ghana Telecom and allowed Space Phone and all the mobile operators to come in. We started laying optic fibre in this country, did the Eastern Corridor Optic Fibre. And so that whole digital revolution started in our time.”