Former President John Mahama, flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 elections has alleged that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo diverted funds meant for COVID-19 into his campaign.
He said some GH¢33 billion which was supposed to be used to combat COVID-19 ended up in the campaign by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the President
The former President made these allegations during the 24th African Business Conference organised by the Harvard Business School.
During his keynote address, John Mahama acknowledged the efforts of countries that are successfully returning to a good footing through fiscal discipline and judicious application of their resources during the crisis.
But the situation in Ghana is not a good example worth trumpeting, according to the 2020 NDC flagbearer.
“Ghana’s fate was easy to predict with the cavalier handling of the economy by the current administration. We went into the pandemic without adequate buffers, and have emerged with a terribly battered economy,” he said.
“To make matters worse, the pandemic windfall of over GH¢33 billion which could have cushioned the economy remains unaudited and is believed to have been used largely in the quest to win the 2020 elections at all cost,” Mr Mahama told the gathering.
“Before the pandemic, poverty reduction was already a major challenge. The pandemic is estimated to have dragged about 55 million more people into poverty in Africa and exposed another 46 million more to the risk of hunger, and malnourishment. Indeed 70% of hunger in Africa, which had already been on the rise since 2014 is directly attributable to this pandemic.”
In a recent interview, aide to John Mahama, Joyce Bawa Mogtari accused the ruling NPP of being corrupt.
She said due to the naked corruption going on under the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, there has been a clarion call for Mahama.
“I think that people are tired of the stories about wanton corruption and dissipation of public funds and I think that people believe that President Mahama deserves more than anything ever to come into office, and complete the process he started,” she explained.
Speaking in an interview in Accra, she said the NDC is not bothered by recent reports by the EIU that the party has to change John Mahama as the flagbearer in 2024
