FLASHBACK: You don’t wrestle with a pig – Mahama justifies silence on Kennedy Agyapong attacks

Former President John Dramani Mahama in March 2022 justified his decision to go mute in the face of attacks and allegations on his person by Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong.

According to Mr Mahama, his decision was hinged on one Akan and English proverb.

Read the full publication by GhanaWeb on former President Mahama’s statement below:


Former President John Dramani Mahama has stated that he has no time to respond to the constant attacks and allegations hurled at him by Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.

According to former President Mahama, his silence on Mr Agyapong’s attacks is guided by two proverbs.

“I am guided by one African proverb and one English proverb; I will start with the English one, which says you don’t wrestle with a pig. It doesn’t mind rolling in mud, and so if you try to wrestle with a pig, you also will go and roll in that mud. And I don’t want to go in that mud.


“And the second one, our elders say if you are bathing and [a] person who is not correct comes and take your towel, you don’t jump out and run after him,” Mr Mahama stated in an answer during a meeting with some members of the National Democratic Congress at the Bentley University in the United States on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

A member of the New York Branch of the NDC, Eunice Amanda Banson, sought to find out from Mr Mahama why he has over the period been quiet on the constant attacks and allegations thrown at him by the loudmouth Assin North MP.

“You have to tell us, why are you so mute and this man is always on top of you?” she inquired.

But in his response, Mr Mahama noted that he had taken a discretionary decision not to respond to critics such as Kennedy Agyapong as doing such would take away his time.

“If I want to mind those people, I will spend all my time responding to them. I don’t have that time,” Mr Mahama said.



A staunch critic of Mr Mahama, Kennedy Agyapong, a member of the New Patriotic Party, has accused the former president of being corrupt on various occasions.

Aside from tagging Mr Mahama as incompetent, Kennedy Agyapong says the former president, during his tenure, supervised a government that was riddled with corruption and pilfering of state funds.

GA/SARA

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