Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister-designate Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, has said former president John Dramani Mahama was like an “emperor without clothes” during his term of office.

According to her, several Ghanaians, especially those from Northern Ghana, felt the severe hardship under President Mahama although the president could have alleviated their plight.

Her comment follows a call on her, during her vetting, by Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu to withdraw those words and apologise to the former president.

Speaking before the Appointments Committee on Monday, January 30, she said: “People have died for the country and we at this time must work and continue from where they left off, and, so, for me the president has been like Caesar’s wife and the issue of SADA affected me personally and the people of the North.”

“If you look at the results, it is indicative of how the people of the North felt. It is not an excuse to say that other people let him down because he is the president. The president of Mother Ghana, he was the president, and at times I felt he was the emperor without clothes and there was the need to draw his attention to it. It was not just political talk; governance affects the lives of all of us.

“Ghana is going to be 60 on the 6th of March, we must raise the bar. Governance affects people, it affects the lives of poor people, and when you are president of the country you have to be responsible for the lives of those people and if the incidence of poverty is the highest in the Northern Region, the president who comes from the North failed us in that respect. It will be very difficult to withdraw those statements.”