Beg to be president, beg to feed Ghana – Hassan Ayariga

If a presidential candidate begs to become the leader of Ghana, he or she will in turn beg to feed the very people he will be governing, Hassan Ayariga, flag bearer of the All People’s Congress (APC), has said.

His comment comes at a time the presidential nominee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said he will not stop appealing for the support and votes of the electorate ahead of the conduct of the December 7, 2016 elections, as Ghanaians want to rid the nation of the mismanagement, incompetence, and corruption of the John Mahama government.

While addressing artisans at the Arts Centre in Osu, this week, Mr Akufo-Addo stressed: “I won’t stop appealing to Ghanaians for their vote today, neither will I stop doing so tomorrow.”

But speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Friday in connection with the launch of the APC’s manifesto, Mr Ayariga said: “We have enough resources in Ghana but we are not making good use of it. We have gold, diamond, bauxite, but we are not making good use of it. All we do is to buy cars with them, Land Cruisers, whereas the people are suffering.”

“So, all I am saying is that Ghana has it all. We don’t have to be beggars. Begging to be president? When you beg to be president, you will beg to look for money. When you beg to become president, definitely you are going to beg to feed the people, so we (APC) are saying no. Let us make good use of our talents. Individually, we have something; collectively we can build the nation.”

He added: “What we need to do is that we have to change our system of education to inculcate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). We need to have our science base to be strong. Our science base is weak. All gadgets in our offices across the country are coming from countries that have a strong science base and so if we improve on our science base, all these materials we use, we will ensure that the foreign exchange stays in Ghana.”