President John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) government should apologise to Ghanaians for the numerous promises they made in the run-up to the 2012 elections, which have not been honoured after being voted into power, the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, has demanded.

Mr Akufo-Addo, who was interacting with Peace FM’s Kwame Sefa Kayi on Friday, December 2, said Mr Mahama had campaigned vigorously prior to the 2012 elections on the promise that citizens would pay a one-time premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Approximately four years after being in office, the promise has not materialised. This, Mr Akufo-Addo suggested, was deception, for which the president must apologise to the populace.

“What happened to that promise? Are they going to withdraw those comments? You should charge them to apologise,” he underscored.

Meanwhile, the three-time presidential candidate has highlighted the importance of creating jobs, which will be the focus of his party if he wins the December 7 presidential elections.

Mr Akufo-Addo, made an allusion to how in 2010 frustrations with unemployment in Tunisia culminated in one young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, setting himself on fire and setting into motion protests in Tunisia that toppled Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and became known as the Arab Spring.

A series of democratic uprisings arose independently and spread across the Arab world in 2011. The protests quickly took hold in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

The NPP flag bearer pointed out that “such desperation to burn oneself to send a message shows the importance of creating jobs for the teeming youth in the country”.

The three-time presidential candidate emphasised that provision of jobs to help citizens earn a decent living “forms an integral part of the reasons for his campaign to be the next president”.

“The heart of the matter is creating an enabling environment to boost job creation,” he emphasised.

For him, this was what informed the theme for the 2016 campaign dubbed: ‘Change: An Agenda for Creating Jobs’.