The Ashanti Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Pyne has criticized President John Dramani Mahama and his two aides-de-camp – Vice President and Chief of Staff – for abandoning government business and the Flagstaff House to engage in cacophonic propaganda.
According to him, it appears the President and his appointees, in their desperation, are prepared to do virtually anything to perpetuate themselves in power, tripping over each other on national campaign with flip-flopping messages to woo voters.
Speaking on Hello Fm, a local radio station in Kumasi, Mr. Pyne said it was no secret that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) was growing increasingly desperate about the impending election after realizing it had lost grounds.
“Numerous tactics have been attempted. First it was to kalyppo politics from the Chief of Staff and then, when that clearly wasn’t going to work, the President throws out an open challenge for debate with Nana Addo after turning down an offer by the IEA. We certainly can’t trust these guys,” he indicated.
The NPP Secretary noted that President Mahama was wrongfully blaming the media for the party’s woes because none of the NDC’s tricks was working, intimating that the NDC leader was demanding media support since his campaign kept on stumbling.
President John Mahama, in an interview with Ovation Magazine recently, pointed accusing fingers at the media in Ghana for blocking his “transformation message” to the citizens.
“It is populism, a certain group has taken control of the media in Ghana, and it makes it difficult for people to discern the truth. So as much as you are putting out the information, it is either being blocked or distorted,” he stated.
However, some media practitioners and analysts of political communication believe the President’s notion is bizarre and has no chance of passing the test of strict proof, but rather it speaks volumes about the leadership’s panic.
The effect of such notion may court more enemies in media circles for the President and his government, virtually guaranteeing overwhelming support for his main opponent, the NPP.
And for many it has confirmed the suspicion that government and the party communicators have willfully failed to live up to expectation.
Host of Oman FM’s Morning Show Fiifi Boafo called on the President to blame his appointees since they had failed to make good use of opportunities given them to trumpet the good works of the government.
Manasseh Azure Awuni, an award-winning journalist, said the president was yet to wake up to the reality as his media handlers “have, on a number of occasions, attracted unnecessary bad press, which contradicts the president’s personality and values as a media-friendly gentleman.”
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