Chief Executive Officer of the InterCity State Transport Corporation, Nana Akomea, has questioned former President John Mahama about the role he will play should he be re-elected into office after the abysmal performance he showed during his tenure.
Mr Akomea noted that he is concerned as the former president, while in office, compared himself to a dead goat in response to some strike actions.
“Was it not the same Mahama who when was hit by strike by teachers and organized labor, said he was a dead goat. And he will no longer listen to their pleas. Is that not what he said when he was president?” he quizzed during an interview on Peace FM.
Nana Akomea noted that Mahama cannot be given the nod after his concerning administration and his inability to be candid about the factors that have contributed to the worsening of the Ghanaian economy under the Akufo-Bawumia government.
“One of the things that hurts me about the NDC and Mahama is that, when we gave him the opportunity to be president from 2012 to 2016, didn’t you see things were difficult? During that period, he noted that one of the major reasons for the economic crisis was because Chinese economy had challenges.
“This time around, there are challenges, and you say we should blame Akufo-Addo and Bawumia when we have been hit with two major incidents: COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“When he goes to the international body, he makes mention of COVID, but when he comes to Ghana, he only blames Bawumia. So which of the two should we believe?” he said.
In 2015, the former president said he had become impervious to threats of strikes and demonstrations in Ghana and would not yield to any of such threats in the then-upcoming election year.
Adopting what he calls a “dead-goat syndrome”, the former president said he would not be hoodwinked by such strategies by workers.
“I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear the knife because it is dead already.
“I have a dead goat syndrome,” he told a Ghanaian population in Botswana where he was on a three-day official state visit.
Seven years down the line, Mahama has explained why he said he had dead goat syndrome. According to him, he used the idiomatic expression due to the frustration associated with the deregulation of petroleum prices.
This, he stated, is because he knew that if the fuel prices went up, the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other unions will not leave him in peace.
Mr. Mahama said he could not bear the mass labour unrest that was prevailing at the time.
“I am the only government in the Fourth Republic where all organised labour came together and went on strike and shut down the country.
“I was one of the most harassed Presidents by Organised Labour. That is what led to the dead goat syndrome… because when you kill a goat, you cannot frighten it with the knife again, really!… I don’t know why I said that, but of course our opponents took it out of context. They said I have said that I won’t listen to anybody,” he explained during a lecture at Academic City University College.