We of the NDC New York Chapter wish to extend our warmest congratulatory
message once again to His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, for the
exceptional and extraordinary debating skills he exhibited at the last in
the series of the IEA debate, among the presidential candidate for the
impending 2012 elections, which was held yesterday in Accra.
President Mahama really deserves to be commended for being the first ever
siting President to subject himself three times to such a rigorous and
probing enquiries by the people of Ghana, the moderators, as well as
unjustifiable attacks and criticism by his opponents, especially Nana Akufo Addo. But
as a communicator, he has been able to weather this turbulent storm of
attacks.
Anyone who watched the debate, regardless of his or her party affiliation
would undoubtedly conclude that, it was President John Mahama who carried
the day, by virtue of his factual, analytical and logical presentation
which injected real life into the discourse, as opposed to a mere verbal,
rhetorical and oratorical argument of Nana Akufo Addo which was full of
abstract analysis.
Various instant and instantaneous reactions from the social media, such as
twitter and facebook, point to the fact that, it was President Mahama who
had the commanding lead in the debate.
One could easily see disappointment written in the eyes of the NPP
members, in the audience. Even one of their bigwigs like Arthur Kennedy, confessed
in an interview right after the debate at the Banquet Hall that, President
Mahama won the debate against Nana Akufo Addo. And the straw that broke
the camel’s back, was Hassan Ayariga, reference to the NPP’s Nana Mantra, “
All die be die”, “Yen Akanfo…” in his closing argument, which Nana Addo
desperately tried to rebut, but was denied the chance by the moderator
because he had his turn already. This was a collateral damage to Nana Addo and
the NPP, because at these final hours to the elections, what Ayariga,
re-echoed will be ringing bell in the minds of the electorate as they make their
ways to the ballot box.
One of the interesting instances was on a question regarding Ghana’s
foreign policy, where Nana Addo, who once served as Ghana’s foreign affairs
minister, made an unfounded allegation and the President put him on his toes,
which actually exposed his ignorance of the current state of Ghana’s foreign
policy.
President Mahama in the last debate reminds us of a similar situation in
the USA when President Barrack Obama trashed his opponent, Mitt Romney and
went on to win the elections!

Husseini Y. Baba AlWaiz, Press Secretary, NDC New York