Former President and Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has directed the Minister of Agriculture to concentrate his efforts on addressing the fears of maize farmers whose crops are wilting rather than mounting political platforms to insist that the New Patriotic Party will retain political power at all cost.

Speaking at a youth rally at the Bukom Arena in Accra, Mahama relayed the cries of maize farmers grappling with an eight-week dry spell which could affect yields.

He cautioned, “The whole of Bono, through Savana and the Northern Region, there is a drought. For almost eight weeks it has not rained and so the maize crop is dying.

“I would have thought that this is what the agric minister will be concerned with. Instead, he is saying ‘We will not hand over power, we will not hand over power’. The farmers in the north are calling you. Their maize is wilting because there is no rain. We must start strategizing how we are going to get enough maize to feed the people in the lean season,” he advised.

Speaking at a rally in Nsawam, the agric minister Bryan Acheampong dared the NDC for the third time, to forget about winning the December 7 presidential elections insisting that the governing New Patriotic Party has all the means to win the elections.

“I’ve stated that the NDC would never win the 2024 elections, whether they like it or not. They couldn’t prevail. We would thus go to any length to win the elections. We are a political party made up of pastors, imams, and traditionalists; thus, we would use whatever tactics necessary to win the election. Burn the sea if you don’t understand; we’ll win and carry on with our good deeds,” he said.

His comments together with a rather harsh response from the opposition NDC have been roundly condemned by civil society and other political watchers with a call on political parties to tone down on inflammatory language.