The running mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NAPO), took a swipe at the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, during a campaign event in the Ashanti Region on August 15, 2024.
NAPO told Ghanaians not to vote for Mahama, a former president, recounting some of the supposed happenings under his presidency.
The NPP running mate resurrected “the dead goat syndrome” remarks of Mahama, saying that Ghanaians should “let the dead goat remain dead.”
“In 2016, someone wanted to be president, he said if you don’t have money don’t go to school, those in school should also pay for water and electricity. If you complete school and get a job, you will be paid for only three months after working for three years.
“The allowance of those going to teacher and nursing training colleges was also cancelled. He told Ghanaians looking for jobs that he was not a magician. and because you are charging your mobile phone too much, he won’t give you light,” he said in Twi.
He added, “What even killed us was that he said he was a dead goat. Have you ever seen a dead goat resurrected? If someone says he is a dead goat, are we the ones to resurrect him? Let the dead goat remain dead.”
Mahama’s dead goat syndrome comment:
The then-president Mahama warned that he would not be shaken by the threat of strikes from labour unions as the country approached the 2016 election.
He said that many presidents allow themselves to be shaken by labour unions, who only want to take advantage of the election years with various demands.
“Often what happens is that in election years, trade unions and everybody see that the government is in a vulnerable place, and so that is when demonstrations, agitations for an increase in pay, and all that begins to happen.
“I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear the knife because it is dead already.
“I have dead goat syndrome,” he said on March 11, 2015, while speaking to members of the Ghanaian community in Botswana.
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