The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has acknowledged that it erred by overly criticizing ex-President John Kufuor’s frequent travels during his tenure as President of Ghana.
“We do agree that we might have erred in the past to have overly criticized him for those travels because some yielded positive results,” said the Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Richard Quarshigah.
The NDC is known to have widely criticized ex-President Kufuor for his travels; some of which they alleged were of no benefit to the nation.
The NDC, then in opposition chronicled President Kufour’s trips and often used that to discredit the ruling government.
[contextly_sidebar id=”6P75MF3jdijcbmMovXr9XtKWcYMZ9RWk”]Criticisms over President John Mahama’s travels have however intensified following the refusal of the Speaker of Parliament to be sworn in twice within a space of one week as President.
The need for him to be sworn in became necessary due to the absence of President Mahama and his Vice, Kwesi Amissah- Arthur from the country.
The President on Wednesday traveled to Burkina Faso in his capacity as ECOWAS chair to help resolve the political unrest in the country.
On Friday, he traveled to Nigeria on the invitation of President Goodluck Jonathan to attend a sporting event.
On Sunday, he is expected to embark on an official trip to the Vatican in Italy and will be back on Tuesday.
Just before these recent trips, he had been to the UK, Denmark and Norway on official visits.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur is currently in India on an official visit.
Some Ghanaians including the Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul, have questioned the President’s frequent travels, but according to the NDC, all of his them are necessary.
Richard Quarshigah who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta on Eyewitness News remarked that “President Mahama’s travels have actually yielded lots of results, lots of investments are coming in, lot’s of loan agreements at the behest of these trips that he made in these past months.”
He admitted that the party overly condemned ex-President Kufuor’s trips because “it got to a point where it was realized that he was taking regular vacations abroad and his entourage usually was so big. I think President Kufuor’s was quite intermittent.”
According to him, President Mahama is ECOWAS Chairman in a sub-region facing serious challenges therefore, it is unfair to judge him.
“In this particular instance, where there is a burning issue in the sub-region and as the chairman of the ECOWAS, there is need as it were for him to be alert 24/ 7 to ensure that there is total peace and total tranquility in Burkina Faso and if there is need for him to travel out of country at the shortest possible notice, shouldn’t he do that?” he asked.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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