His Excellency John Dramani Mahama has divulged that African leaders beyond the age of 80 have no business clinging to power.

Mr Mahama made this known when he addressed a gathering on the topic ‘Africa’s strategic priorities and global role’ in the United Kingdom.

According to him, such old leaders easily lose their thoughts and are unable to make any meaningful decisions which help to progress their countries. Mr. John Dramani Mahama revealed this when he was asked a question about his views on old leaders still holding on to power in Africa.

“When you have a leader who is old, he has no business continuing to be a leader, it doesn’t matter where the person is coming from, whether Africa or wherever.”
Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama to a greater extent opined that, “When you have leaders who have problems in terms of thoughts, they have no business continuing being in leadership, especially when you have a continent with a population as youthful as Africa.”

“60% of the African population is young. So why would 80-year-olds and 90-year-olds still want to lead? I was going to say they should be home taking care of their grandchildren, but I recently became a grandfather myself.”
Mahama

There are a number of African leaders who are above 80 years and in active service. Some of them are Cameroon President, Paul Biya (89 years), Namibian President, Hage Gottfried Geingob (81 years), Ivory Coast President, Alassane Ouattara (81 years), Equatorial Guinea President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (80 years), President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa (80 years) among others.

Ghana’s 8% Growth In 2017 Can’t Be Attributed To NPP

Former President John Dramani Mahama described as ‘unusual’, efforts by the Akufo Addo government to take credit for Ghana’s economic growth in 2017.

Mr. Mahama noted that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has driven the country into an economic ditch and has been making attempts at claiming credit for the hard work of the National Democratic Congress in 2016 which led to the significant economic growth the country recorded in 2017. He opined that the records are clear to point to the work that his government did before leaving office in 2016.

Answering a question from Tamale North MP, Alhassan Suhiyini on the evidence of the work the NDC party put in to record the 8% economic growth in 2017, Mr. Mahama disclosed that, “When we were leaving office in 2016, all the multilateral agencies predicted Ghana was going to grow at 8% because of the work that we have done and in 2017, it grew at 8%. There was no way the current government could have influenced that growth in 2017.”

“The indices show that when we left office, the debt to GDP was 56%… Meanwhile, you inherited it in 2017 at 56% of debt to GDP so what other evidence do you need to attribute Ghana’s fiscal and economic growth to the NDC?”
Mr Mahama

The former President also chastised the New Patriotic Party’s government and condemned its domestic debt exchange programme which has gotten many investors and bondholders agitated. He said the NDC went through an IMF programme and didn’t have to take Ghanaians through the current debacle.

“There is one significant fact that I kept saying that nobody pays attention to. Under an IMF programme, for the first time in history, we agreed with the IMF that we were going to do zero Central Bank financing so in the 2016 fiscal year, the government implemented its whole budget without taking a single Cedi from the Bank of Ghana.”
Mahama