The 2016 vice-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has said Ghanaians no longer want a “dead goat” for a President – a President who is and will remain indifferent to the hardships and sufferings they go through on a daily basis.

Addressing residents of Aflao, who turned up at the NPP’s Volta Regional Rally, on Sunday, November 20, 2016, Dr. Bawumia stated that the government of President Mahama has worsened the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian, leaving in its wake an unprecedented level of unemployment.

Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate indicated that with more revenue, in the form of loans and taxes, than all governments in Ghana’s history put together, the government of President John Mahama has been unable to pay nurse and teacher trainee allowances while several months of NHIS claims are owed hospitals.

“They cannot pay for School Feeding, they cannot pay for Mass Cocoa Spraying. The National Youth Employment Programme has collapsed under their watch and they cannot pay contractors. That is why we are saying they are an incompetent government,” he said.

According to Dr. Bawumia, with Ghanaians desperately yearning for their problems to be solved, “he (President Mahama) tells us he’s not a magician. He says he’s not a magician to solve the problem of unemployment. But, he’s a very good magician when it comes to the disappearance of Ghana’s money under ‘create, loot and share’ schemes like SADA, Woyome, Ameri, Karpower, GYEEDA, Waterville, ISOFOTON, etc.”

He continued, “President Mahama is a very good magician at making our money disappear. We want change. We want to elect a new President. We don’t want a dead goat as a president. A dead goat is a dead goat, whether in Ashanti, Volta, Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Upper West, Upper East, Western, Central or Northern. We don’t want to vote for a dead goat.”

Dr. Bawumia was confident that the people of Ghana “don’t want to vote for a president who cannot think far. Of what use is a president who cannot think far be to this country? We want a farsighted President. We don’t want to vote for a president whose government is corrupt, and we definitely don’t want to vote for an incompetent President.”

He assured the people of the Volta Region that “in 18 days’ time a new Ghana will be born, and we will begin to see the restoration of a leadership of vision, integrity and incorruptibility under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. In 18 days’ time, we will have a new President-Elect of the Republic of Ghana. We will replace this corrupt and incompetent government of President Mahama.”

Dr. Bawumia added that “in 18 days’ time, you will begin to see the process of the restoration of the teacher training and nursing allowances. We will begin the process of transformation of the economy which brings down unemployment and brings jobs to our people.”

He, therefore, urged residents of Aflao and the populace of the Volta Region to unite and ignore the tribal and ethnocentric politics being waged by President Mahama.

“Let us all come together as one country, and let us not allow President Mahama to divide us. He has no message, he has lost the argument. You cannot govern with propaganda and tribalism. Away with tribalism and let’s get together with unity under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” he appealed.

Thanking the people of Aflao who turned out in their thousands to attend the rally, Dr. Bawumia stated that “from what I am seeing today, I can see why some people are panicking. I can see why they are making nonsensical statements, and I can see why, Insha Allah, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be the next President of Ghana.”