President John Mahama has admitted he travels a lot but to label him as a globetrotter will be disingenuous.

He said people, especially the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) should not lose sight of the fact that his responsibility as Ghana’s president and head of ECOWAS involves a lot of meetings outside the country.

Mahama has come under harsh attack recently for abandoning Ghana when the economy is facing serious challenges and at a time when Burkina Faso was on fire. He was then in Europe attending to official duties.

His critics have labeled him as a globe-trotter while others call him a tourist in his own country since he only comes back to “refuel” his plane then jets to other countries. Over the past few weeks he has been in UK, Norway, Denmark, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

President Mahama has said such trips are not for fun, but a necessary evil to realise the transformation of Ghana’s economy as well as position itself for investors and to maintain peace in the sub-region among others.

“We have certain responsibilities that make it necessary for us to travel. I guess that people don’t realise that I’m wearing two hats now – Ghana president and ECOWAS chairman – and as president of Ghana you receive invitations to pay official visits. I received invitations from Norway and Denmark and if you know the role Denmark plays in terms of our bilateral support you will realise that it was useful to go to Denmark,” President Mahama told Paul Adom Otchere of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana Thursday.

“We had very good discussion… and it was necessary for us to go. Norway has been supporting us strongly when it comes to oil and gas, and they have oil for development programme of which Ghana is a beneficiary… so you look at all those things and based on that you accept an invitation when it is extended to you.”

He added: “Aside from that I am president of ECOWAS too so some of the travels are in connection with that. My visit to the countries affected by Ebola is because I’m president of ECOWAS. My two visits to Burkina Faso was in regard of the security situation … there are many other such visits one as to pay as ECOWAS president and so if you put the totality together then people might think that one is traveling but I think these are to the benefit of the country.”