Seasoned Journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has kicked against the call for a debate between President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and former President John Dramani Mahama.
Former President John Dramani Mahama, who is the 2020 Presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has thrown a challenge to the President to debate him ahead of the December elections.
He has asked for a one-on-one debate with the President so they can both give an account of their performances during their individual term of office.
“If the President agrees, I’ll just sit with him and we’ll all bring our papers and just talk to the Ghanaian people and show what we did with ₵56 billion and he too can show what he’s done with ₵140 billion,” he said.
But Kweku Baako says the debate will not come off.
He explained that the Presidential debate became a convention when the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) started organizing it but it lost its value when both Presidential candidates, John Mahama and President Nana Akufo-Addo, in separate occasions, declined to honour the IEA debate.
To him, the debate will be possible if it were a reputable organization handling it and not the NDC Presidential candidate calling for it.
He described Mr. Mahama’s approach for a debate as ”takashi”, to wit using force to call for a debate and stressed that it doesn’t lie in the tongue of John Mahama to request a debate.
”Why should you be the one to call for the debate? I thought we should be encouraging a central body to take up that assignment and set the parameters and infuse it into our culture, political culture . . . you destroy the principal. So, with the debate, I’ve looked into the crystal ball, it will not happen. The one-on-one debate between President Akufo-Addo and former President Mahama, I can tell you it is not going to happen,” he stated.
