The presidency has dared the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, to name the “incompetent young people” that he claims are not helping President John Mahama to govern the country properly.

Presidential staffer Dr Clement Apaak threw the challenge following Prof Adei’s assertion that Mr Mahama has surrounded himself with a “despicable team of young people” to run government.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, September 21 – Founder’s Day – Professor Adei said Mr Mahama has sidelined competent people in the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and opted to run the affairs of the state with “incompetent” young people whose stock-in-trade is insults.

“Honestly, I believe that President Mahama has not been very good to us in the sense that even within the NDC, he has not used the capable people. … He has used basically incompetent people, young people whose only turf is just insulting. … I say that 50 per cent of Ghanaians are NDC and, therefore, there are capable people in NDC.

He should not rule with this bunch of incompetent young people. … And to me it pains me and I hold [President] Mahama responsible because he has all these people who are competent and he has not used them,” he told show host Prince Minkah.

Mr Mahama is seeking a second term in office. His arch-rival in the race is Nana Akufo-Addo of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) who is having a third try at the presidency. Also in the race is businessman Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) – also in the race for the third time.

In Prof Adei’s view, Dr Nduom and Mr Akufo-Addo provide better alternatives.

“I think as usual, we have two alternatives. I hope that Mahama has learnt his lessons in that should he win [the December election], he would do better, but I have no doubt that people like Papa Kwesi Nduom and Nana Akufo-Addo, if Mahama loses, will provide a much better alternative for Ghana.

For me, I hope that Mahama’s second term will be better. If he hasn’t learnt from what has happened, then may God help us, but then I think that the alternatives are good and I have no doubt at all of the capacity of Nduom or of Nana Akufo-Addo to provide superior leadership for Ghana.”

“I have no doubt at all of the capacity of Nduom or of Nana Akufo-Addo to provide superior leadership for Ghana because I’ve seen them perform. ... Nduom as a private person has done extremely well.

Nana Akufo-Addo’s pedigree, just like everything being said about him, is impeccable. He has been – if not the most – one of the most successful legal luminaries in Ghana. He has been Minister of Justice [and] Foreign Affairs.

You can only predict people from their past and none of those in the race, including His Excellency the President, [can be compared] with these two people. Let us stop politicising things. I mean the quality is like day and night,” he stated.

However, Dr Apaak, in an interview with Prince Minkah on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Thursday, 22 September, described Prof Adei’s observations as mere “political rhetoric” meant to court disaffection for the NDC and create a rift between the NDC people he (Prof Adei) claims are competent but have been sidelined, and the young politicians currently serving in the Mahama administration.

According to him, Prof Adei has never said anything complimentary of the NDC and so wondered why he had all of sudden come to the realisation that there were competent people in the NDC who have been sidelined.

“He is just playing smart,” Dr Apaak said, adding: “…He’s never been an admirer of the NDC … he has never been someone who has held our party in high esteem …”