President John Mahama says his critics have failed to contradict the evidence-based stories of progress and development he told in his State of the Nation Address.
“After the SONA [State of the Nation Address], nobody has contradicted those stories,” President Mahama said on TV3’s New Day show during an exclusive interview on Monday.
The President said it is thus unfair and an insult to Ghanaians for his critics to describe the people he used to demonstrate the reality of Ghana’s development at the event as “concert party”, especially when they have failed to discredit their stories.
“I felt very sad that people described ordinary Ghanaians, whose votes you want, as being a part of concert party. It’s an insult to Ghanaians unfortunately. You might detest your political opponent as much as possible but you don’t insult the Ghanaian people,” he said.
President Mahama said his resolve to use the “evidence-based” approach was borne out of the fact that often Ghanaians take for granted the progress and development taking place in the country.
“We’ve built a new hospital so? Until you let people see by evidence how it has changed their lives, often they will take it for granted,” he said and explained that the lady he brought from Nkrankwanta had his first child at the Dormaa Hospital so she had to spend much money on transportation for herself and relatives.
“The [her] next baby was born with a Polyclinic in her own backyard so she literally walked to the polyclinic, had her baby. These are the things that until you tell the story, people will take for granted” he explained.
Mr Mahama said the people were randomly chosen from all over the country to “show how the social and economic infrastructure programme that government is implementing is having effect on the lives of the people”.
According to President Mahama, the evidence-based approach, which has become an order of the day in the world, was used to demonstrate actually what the reality is.
“Evidence-based learning is the fashion in the world today and so I just used it to demonstrate what progress we’re making in Ghana. The driver is still driving from Wa to Tamale in four and a half hours. He’s able to go twice in one day. He goes to Tamale, loads back, gets home and his tuozaafi is still warm for him to be able to eat,” President Mahama said.
“That’s the reality you cannot say does not exist. If you say I’m out of touch with reality, I mean I wasn’t telling the story, the people were telling the story. Iwanna express my commendation to them for coming and standing up and being able to be part of the testimony of the change that is happening in Ghana,” he added.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|tv3network.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh
