The publisher of Ovation Magazine, Chief Dele Momodou has said he was not surprised former President John Mahama lost the 2016 elections to President Akufo-Addo.
Akufo-Addo garnered 5, 716, 609 votes, representing 53.84 percent to snatch the presidency from former Mahama who secured 4,713,277 votes, representing 44.40 percent.
The NDC also lost more than 40 parliamentary seats to the NPP, which gave the latter majority in Parliament. Akufo-Addo won the election after a third term bid.
Speaking Wednesday on Starr Chat, Chief Momodou said despite openly declaring his support for Mahama in that year’s election he knew deep down that retaining the power will be a herculean task.
“ Yes, Because there were a lot of similarities to [Goodluck] Jonathan in Nigeria,” he told Starr Chat host Bola Ray when asked if he had seen Mahama’s defeat coming in 2016.
He continued: “The easiest way to get rid of a government is to accuse it of corruption and most people that is what they want to hear. Whether it is true or not people just want[ed] to hear. And it is in the character of politics that you must damage your opponent and damage him beyond repair.”
Enumerating what he thinks were Mahama’s shortcomings during the electioneering Chief Momodou said, “He was too busy concentrating on his project. That was one problem. The second one was that Mahama could not really be bothered about what people said about him. That’s why he used to say ‘I’m a dead goat.’ He couldn’t be bothered. He was not afraid.”
According to him, Mahama took several bold decisions during his reign and “he paid the price for taking those bold decisions.”
“So you saw the defeat coming, staring him in the face,” chipped in Bola Ray. “Oh! It was a tough battle for him,” he replied.
Asked why he was still glued to the Mahama ticket despite him knowing the obvious, he reiterated that, “In life, you don’t say that because you are going to be defeated you’ll just sit down at home and do nothing.”
“For him, it was a great experience and I’m so proud of him for bowing out gracefully,” he said despite a lot of pressure on him not go.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
